EIC Impact Report 2025

This report provides an overview of the impacts delivered by the innovators funded by the European Innovation Council (EIC), a EUR 10 billion programme of the European Union launched in 2021 to identify, support and scale-up breakthrough technologies and deep-tech start-ups.
It focuses on the Horizon Europe EIC portfolio of over 700 start-ups, 400 advanced research projects, and 180 translation projects funded in the period 2021-24 inclusive. The report also assesses the longer-term impacts of an “extended EIC portfolio”, which includes projects and companies funded under the Pilot phase of the EIC with ca. 800 start-ups and SMEs from 2018 to 2020 and 400 technology projects from 2014 to 2020.

Looking back over a longer time period of the extended EIC portfolio, key impacts include:

• Investments of over EUR 1 billion into 272 unique companies with over EUR 2.6 billion of additional investment mobilised since the launch of the EIC Fund in 2020;
• Companies averaging over 50% employment growth and 55% revenue growth in the two years following EIC support;
• 80% of equity investments catalysed by the EIC involve a non-domestic investor with a majority of these seeing flows of investment across Europe/countries associated to the programme;
• Portfolio companies attracting over EUR 12 billion of additional investments, primarily from venture capital, with a prevalence of cross border capital;
• Over 70 companies achieving ‘centaur’ valuations (above EUR 100 million), including six with a valuation above EUR 500 million;
• Over 1 350 unique innovations from EIC Pathfinder and Transition projects, with 75% assessed as market creating or targeting an emerging market;
• Over 100 start-ups established or in the process of being established to commercialise results of EIC Pathfinder and Transition projects; and
• 1000 EIC companies and projects matched to corporates, procurers and potential investors resulting in over 230 signed deals.