EIC STEP Scale Up

Apply as a single small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), or a small mid-cap company with fewer than 500 employees. An SME has fewer than 250 employees and either annual turnover of no more than €50 million or a balance-sheet total of no more than €43 million. Companies belonging to a group may need to count group staff and financial data too. This is for companies that have already succeeded in early funding rounds and are ready to raise a much larger round; previous EIC support is not required.

Your company must be established in the EU or an eligible Horizon Europe associated country. The fully associated non-EU countries relevant here are Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, the Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Tunisia, Türkiye and Ukraine. Canada, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea have association limited to a different part of Horizon Europe and are not included in this equity route.

Israeli companies must be established within Israel’s pre-1967 borders and must not operate in the Golan Heights, Gaza or the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The guidelines allow an exception for activities there that benefit protected persons under international humanitarian law or promote the Middle East peace process in line with EU policy.

UK companies may apply under transitional arrangements for 2026 and later EU budgets. An investment decision remains conditional on the amendment extending UK association to the EIC Fund being applicable at the time of that decision. Supported companies must keep most of their value, including intellectual property, in the EU or eligible associated countries; the Fund may impose safeguards to protect European interests.

• Target a total funding round of €50–150 million or more. The call also requires that round to be at least 3–5 times the requested EIC investment. Obtain a pre-commitment—a written indication of planned investment—from one qualified investor for at least 20% of the entire target round, using the official template. The qualifying 20% must be entirely equity—investment for ownership shares—and fully uninvested on the date of the pre-commitment letter. Already-invested amounts and quasi-equity instruments do not count towards that threshold.
• A qualified investor can be public or private and must have relevant market, technology and jurisdiction experience. It must pass identity and anti-money-laundering checks and normally not be high-risk; a high-risk investor can exceptionally qualify if justified to protect economic security. Screening may be completed during eligibility checks. Your existing investor may provide the pre-commitment without leading the round. The lead investor is the round’s main investor; its commercial investment horizon normally drives the timing for selling the investment later. Providing the letter alone does not fill that role: if the pre-committed investor is not the lead, participation by a qualified lead investor will normally be a condition of the EIC Fund’s investment.
• Keep the pre-commitment distinct from a completed investment. Disclose any commitment becoming an investment agreement before interview; this is likely to disqualify the proposal. The FAQ treats a signed term sheet, which sets out the proposed investment terms, as a binding investment document rather than the flexible pre-commitment sought.
• There is no minimum technology-readiness level, meaning no fixed development-stage score that by itself determines eligibility. The jury still assesses technology feasibility, intellectual property, market opportunity, the business model, the team and investment risks.
• Civilian technologies and technologies with a credible business case in both civilian and defence markets can apply. Technologies intended purely for defence use belong to the separate STEP Scale Up Defence call.

Do not submit another Accelerator, STEP or STEP Defence proposal while awaiting evaluation feedback: only the latest concurrent proposal is considered. Choose either STEP Scale Up or STEP Defence; the FAQ rules out sequential or parallel applications to both. From 1 January 2026, three unsuccessful submissions of the same or improved proposal by the same legal entity prevent further STEP Scale Up applications under Horizon Europe, including failures at eligibility or interview.

The Fund’s excluded-activities rules also apply. Climate-related examples include destruction of critical habitats, new palm-oil plantations, and logging or commercial concessions in tropical natural forest. Cross-border waste trade must comply with the Basel Convention and national and EU rules; using waste as fuel in district heating is not itself excluded. Check the full list in the Investment Guidelines, which also covers other environmental, ethical and human-rights exclusions.

Status

lukker 25. nov. 2026

Lukker

25. nov. 2026 · 17:00:00 UTC+01:00

Vilkår for ansøgningsrunden

• Continuous submissions; 2026 evaluation batches at 17:00 Brussels time on 11 February, 6 May, 9 September and 25 November. The 25 November batch will not take place if the full annual budget has been allocated by completion of the September batch.

Submit through the Funding & Tenders Portal linked from the official programme page. An investor may help prepare the application, but it must use the applicant company’s Participant Identification Code (PIC), the portal’s company identifier. The investment agreement is with the company.

Include a business plan of up to 50 pages covering ownership, finances and STEP objectives; a pitch deck of up to 15 pages; the single-investor pre-commitment; the financial plan and agreement template; and key personnel CVs. Include a freedom-to-operate analysis, which checks whether the business can use its technology without infringing others’ rights. If unavailable, the call permits a note of up to 2 pages explaining the position; if irrelevant, for example for some software, provide a statement.

Eligible applicants proceed to a jury interview and, where necessary, a technology review. A successful interview leads to detailed investment due diligence; payment is not guaranteed until a positive review and the EIC Fund’s investment approval lead to an agreement. Proposals can be submitted at any time and are grouped into the published evaluation batches.