EIC Scaling Club

We recently attend the EIT Summit in Brussels, where we had a chance to catch up with Maria Tsavachidis, CEO of EIT Urban Mobility, one of the organisation's so-called KICs.

What is a KIC, you ask?

As the EIT explains on its website, the acronym stands for "Knowledge and Innovation Communities" and they are essentially Europe-wide networks centred around addressing a specific societal challenge; from sustainable energy to climate change to healthy food and green transport.

EIT Urban Mobility is among the earliest such communities, started in January 2019 to "encourage positive changes in the way people move around cities in order to make them more liveable places".

EIT, which is a body of the European Union, provided co-funding of up to €400 million for the period 2020 to 2026 to make some moves (pun intended).

In the interview, Tsavachidis provides some further background on EIT Urban Mobility and its raison d'être, the size of the problem that needs tackling and the three main initiatives that it's outlined to do so, examples of interesting startups and partners it's working with, and much more!

Have a listen to the interview on the EIC Scaling Club website, on our podcast page or wherever you enjoy your podcasts!

Would you like to become a trusted business advisor to the most exciting European deep tech scale-ups by answering our Open Call for Mentors for the EIC Scaling Club?

We've received a lot of interest for this, and to answer any questions you may have about the opportunity we've decided to host an information webinar on Wednesday 6 March at 2:30PM CET.

Planned agenda:

1. Welcome & Intro to the EIC Scaling Club (5 mins)
2. Presentation of mentorship calendar (Tasks & Timeline, 10 mins)
3. Presentation of mentor profile, mentor commitments & benefits and mentor selection (10 mins)
4. Presentation of Market Opportunities (5 mins)
5. Q&A (30 mins)

See you in a week?

We had a very interesting conversation with the co-founder and CEO of clean energy scale-up Proxima Fusion at the recent DLD Conference in Munich, and fortunately for you we recorded it!
 

Have a listen to this interview with Francesco Sciortino, whose deep tech company aims to build an entirely new generation of fusion power plants, using QI stellarators.

Proxima Fusion is the first-ever spin-out company from the Max Planck Society Institute for Plasma Physics, which happens to have built and operates the most advanced stellarator on the planet, W7-X.

Research over the past decade or so has now set the stage for the Munich scale-up to leverage modern optimisation tools and design capabilities, and accelerate fusion.

 
To achieve that, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Tesla and Google X scientists and engineers have already joined the Germany-based company, and Proxima Fusion last year raised €7.5 million in a round led by Plural and UVC Partners and joined by High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and the Wilbe Group.

Have a listen to the interview to learn more about why Germany is fertile ground for innovation in the field of stellarators, how the design of a new generation of - continuous - fusion power plants could (and should) be accelerated in the current and next decade, and how the technology can be scaled in (and for) the future.

Sciortino also talks about the need to build an ecosystem around fusion power, why Proxima has recently applied to receive funding from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator, his insights on the public and private funding landscape in Europe and on the availability of and access to key talent in this part of the world.

Have a listen here: https://eicscalingclub.eu/news/making-clean-scalable-fusion-power-plants-a-reality-an-interview-with-proxima-co-founder-and-ceo-francesco-sciortino

On the sidelines of the recent Tech Tour Growth 50 event in Paris, we recorded a short but sweet interview with Jennifer Schenker, founder and editor-in-chief of The Innovator, which she describes as a "pan-European publication with global aspirations".

Having covered the European technology sector for 30+ years, the veteran journalist started The Innovator in late 2016 to cover digital transformation and sustainability, educating its readers - mostly senior executives at large corporates and SMEs - on how tech will impact their businesses.

In the podcast interview, Schenker notes that she's always been impressed with Europe's scientific and technological excellence, but frustrated at how little of that gets commercialised and turned into scale-ups, let alone global tech leaders.

Acknowledging the progress that has been made of late by deep tech-focused accelerators and programs, the EU institutions and how universities are starting to work with startups and scale-ups, Schenker posits that the growing funding gap is an enormous issue hampering further growth.

Schenker recently joined the EIC Scaling Club as Council Member to make an active contribution to levelling up the European tech ecosystem(s), and discusses in the interview how media companies can add value to our programme as stakeholder members.

Website: https://eicscalingclub.eu/news/the-innovator
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:share:7167886603028275200/
Xitter: https://twitter.com/ScalingClubEIC/status/1762121946336989370
Podcast: https://eicscalingclub.transistor.fm/episodes/the-innovator

We invite all interested, motivated and experienced technology entrepreneurs, investors, innovators, operators and executives to join the EIC Scaling Club programme as Mentors. 

Until the 13th of March, you can apply to become a mentor as part of our ambitious initiative to help scale European deep tech scale-ups into global leaders with the support and funding of the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA).

If you are a seasoned Non-Executive Director (M/F) with a rich professional background looking to play a pivotal role in the development of European deep tech scale-ups, and you possess deep expertise in corporate or venture investment, M&A advisory services, or experience in growing and scaling deep tech companies, then we'd be delighted to welcome you to the Club as a mentor!