Digital innovation and education company EIT Digital is inviting growth-stage startups with a deep tech focus to apply for the fifth annual EIT Digital Challenge. The best ten companies will receive prizes totaling EUR 750,000, including comprehensive international growth support. The application deadline is June 14.
The EIT Digital Challenge features five categories: Digital Industry, Digital Cities, Digital Wellbeing, Digital Infrastructure, and Digital Finance. In each category, the best two companies will receive a full year of dedicated support from the EIT Digital Accelerator. The winner in each category will also receive a cash prize of EUR 50,000, says a press release sent to the Budapest Business Journal.
The EIT Digital Accelerator comprises a team of around 40 experienced business developers and finance experts operating from 13 cities across Europe, along with a hub in Silicon Valley. Since 2012, the EIT Digital Accelerator has supported more than 270 startups to access new markets and raise capital.
Both the Accelerator and the contest focus on deep tech innovations: cutting edge technologies which are built around unique and differentiated scientific or technological advances, and which are often protected or hard to reproduce, says the press release.
“Deep tech scaleups develop disruptive solutions that are crucial for Europe’s future as they fuel digital transformation,” says Chahab Nastar, Chief Innovation Officer of EIT Digital.
To successfully apply for the EIT Digital Challenge, companies must be based in one of the member states of the European Union; they must be in the growth stage (to be proven by showing annual revenue of over EUR 300,000, or at least EUR 2 million in total funding); and they should be in their first ten years of existence.
Further information and an application form can be found here.
Source: bbj.hu
