The European Innovation Council (EIC) published its latest EIC Accelerator results on 15 June 2026. In this round, 38 start-ups and SMEs were selected for support after 87 proposals reached the interview stage. The result is a smaller cohort than several recent Accelerator rounds, but it remains heavily weighted toward blended finance: 32 of the 38 selected companies are eligible for a combination of grant and equity support.
The EIC announced €90 million in proposed grant support for the selected companies and a further €202 million provisioned for equity investments. Taken together, this represents €292 million in grant support and provisioned EIC Fund investment for the cohort, or approximately €7.68 million per selected company. The article below breaks down the funding mix, interview success rate, budget structure, country distribution, historical context, and the full selected-company table.
Source: European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency, 38 start-ups and SMEs secure EIC support in latest round of the EIC Accelerator, published 15 June 2026. Company-level calculations use the selected-company table below.
Executive Summary
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Selected companies | 38 |
| Interview-stage proposals | 87 |
| Interview-stage success rate | 43.7% |
| Not selected after reaching interview | 49 proposals (56.3%) |
| Countries represented | 16 EU and associated countries |
| Blended finance companies | 32 (84.2%) |
| Grant-only companies | 5 (13.2%) |
| Equity-only companies | 1 (2.6%) |
| Proposed grant support | €90 million |
| Provisioned equity investment | €202 million |
| Total grant plus provisioned equity | €292 million |
| Average total per selected company | €7.68 million |
| Seal of Excellence recipients | 95 above-threshold applications not funded due to budget limits |
| STEP Seal recipients | 12 companies that reached the threshold under the five EIC Accelerator challenges |
| Women-led leadership representation | 21%, corresponding to about 8 of 38 companies |
The most important result is the funnel. The publication gives a clear interview-stage denominator: 87 proposals reached interviews, and 38 were selected. That produces a 43.7% Step 3 success rate. The publication does not state the total number of full applications submitted for this round, so a full-application-to-funding success rate cannot be calculated from this source.
Funding Mix: Blended Finance Still Dominates
The selected-company table shows that the EIC Accelerator continues to operate primarily as a blended finance instrument. Of the 38 selected companies, 32 are listed as blended finance, 5 are grant-only, and 1 is equity-only.
| Funding Type | Companies | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Blended Finance | 32 | 84.2% |
| Grant Only | 5 | 13.2% |
| Equity Only | 1 | 2.6% |
| Total | 38 | 100.0% |
The 84.2% blended-finance share matches the 84% headline figure in the EIC publication after rounding. This is consistent with the direction of recent EIC Accelerator results: since 2024, the aggregated selected-company data shows blended finance consistently above 78%, and the last three Accelerator result rounds are all above 84%.
For applicants, the implication is direct: even if the grant is the most visible part of the programme, the selected-company profile is investor-facing. The EIC is selecting companies that can justify a technical de-risking grant and an equity-backed scale-up case. The proposal, pitch deck, and interview therefore need to explain both the R&D milestone logic and the investment case.
Budget Breakdown
The publication separates the budget into grant support and provisioned equity investment. The €90 million figure refers only to proposed grant support. A further €202 million is provisioned for EIC Fund equity investments. This produces a total grant-plus-equity envelope of €292 million for the 38 selected companies.
| Budget Item | Amount | Derived Metric |
|---|---|---|
| Grant support | €90 million | 30.8% of total envelope |
| Provisioned equity investment | €202 million | 69.2% of total envelope |
| Total envelope | €292 million | €7.68 million per selected company |
| Average grant per selected company | €2.37 million | €90m / 38 selected companies |
| Average grant per grant-eligible company | €2.43 million | €90m / 37 grant-eligible companies |
| Average equity provision per selected company | €5.32 million | €202m / 38 selected companies |
| Average equity provision per equity-eligible company | €6.12 million | €202m / 33 equity-eligible companies |
The budget structure is strongly equity-weighted. Grants represent 30.8% of the announced grant-plus-equity envelope, while equity represents 69.2%. This does not mean every company receives the average amount. Grant agreements and investments are finalised company by company, and equity investments follow each company's development and funding strategy. The average figures are useful for understanding the scale of the round, not for predicting an individual company's final contract.
The average total envelope of €7.68 million per selected company is almost identical to the October 2025 EIC Accelerator result round, where 61 selected companies were associated with approximately €467 million, or about €7.66 million per company. The difference is not the average size of the selected-company package. The difference is the cohort size: 38 selected companies in this round compared with 61 in the previous October 2025 result update.
Success Rates and Selection Pressure
The EIC publication states that 87 proposals reached the interview stage and 38 companies were selected. That gives a direct interview-stage success rate of 43.7%. In practical terms, once a company reached the interview stage in this round, fewer than one in two secured funding.
| Funnel Item | Count | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Interview-stage proposals | 87 | 100.0% |
| Selected companies | 38 | 43.7% of interview-stage proposals |
| Not selected after reaching interview | 49 | 56.3% of interview-stage proposals |
The interview-stage rate is materially higher than the March 2025 result round, where 40 companies were selected from 150 interview-stage applicants, a 26.7% interview-stage success rate. It is lower than the October 2025 result round, where 61 companies were selected from 121 interview-stage applicants, a 50.4% interview-stage success rate. The current round sits between those two recent reference points.
The publication does not provide the number of full proposals submitted in this batch. Because of that, the overall Step 2-to-funding rate cannot be computed. The correct public success rate from this source is the Step 3 interview-stage rate of 43.7%.
Seal of Excellence and STEP Seal
The EIC also reports substantial demand beyond the available budget. A further 95 applications were assessed above the threshold either at the remote stage or at interview, but were not funded because of insufficient budget. These applications will receive a Seal of Excellence. In addition, 12 companies that reached the threshold under the five EIC Accelerator challenges will receive a STEP Seal.
| Recognition | Count | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Selected for EIC Accelerator support | 38 | Funded cohort |
| Seal of Excellence | 95 | Above-threshold applications not funded due to budget limits |
| Selected plus Seal of Excellence | 133 | Recognised high-quality proposals in the available publication data |
| Funded share of selected plus Seal group | 28.6% | 38 / 133 |
| Seal of Excellence share of selected plus Seal group | 71.4% | 95 / 133 |
| Seal of Excellence per funded company | 2.5 | 95 / 38 |
The Seal of Excellence figure is important because it shows how much qualified demand remains outside the funded group. For every company selected in this round, there were 2.5 above-threshold applications that received a Seal of Excellence instead of EIC Accelerator funding. That is a strong indicator of budget pressure, not just evaluation stringency.
The STEP Seal data is a separate signal. The 12 STEP Seal recipients are linked to companies that reached the threshold under the five EIC Accelerator challenges, regardless of final funding selection. The count is equivalent to 31.6% of the selected-company count, but it is not the same population as the 38 funded companies.
Country Distribution
The selected companies come from 16 countries. France leads the round with 6 companies, followed by the United Kingdom with 5. Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland each have 4. Together, the top five countries account for 23 of 38 selected companies, or 60.5% of the cohort.
| Rank | Country | Companies | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | France | 6 | 15.8% |
| 2 | United Kingdom | 5 | 13.2% |
| 3 | Germany | 4 | 10.5% |
| 3 | Sweden | 4 | 10.5% |
| 3 | Switzerland | 4 | 10.5% |
| 6 | Finland | 3 | 7.9% |
| 6 | Netherlands | 3 | 7.9% |
| 8 | Austria | 1 | 2.6% |
| 8 | Belgium | 1 | 2.6% |
| 8 | Denmark | 1 | 2.6% |
| 8 | Ireland | 1 | 2.6% |
| 8 | Israel | 1 | 2.6% |
| 8 | Italy | 1 | 2.6% |
| 8 | Luxembourg | 1 | 2.6% |
| 8 | Norway | 1 | 2.6% |
| 8 | Poland | 1 | 2.6% |
The country distribution is concentrated at the top but not narrow overall. There are 27 selected companies from EU Member States, representing 71.1% of the cohort. The remaining 11 companies, or 28.9%, come from associated or non-EU countries in the selected-company table: the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Israel, and Norway.
Funding Type by Country
The funding-type split by country is uneven. The United Kingdom's five selected companies are all grant-only in the table. France has five blended-finance companies and the only equity-only company in the round. Every other represented country is entirely blended finance.
| Country | Total | Blended Finance | Grant Only | Equity Only |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| France | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 |
| United Kingdom | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Germany | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Sweden | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Switzerland | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Finland | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Netherlands | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Austria | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Belgium | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Denmark | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Ireland | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Israel | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Italy | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Luxembourg | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Norway | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Poland | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
This pattern matters for interpretation. The headline blended-finance share is high, but it is not uniformly distributed across countries. The United Kingdom accounts for all five grant-only awards in this table, while the rest of the cohort is almost entirely blended finance.
Women-Led Representation
The EIC publication reports that 21% of the selected companies are led by women in key leadership roles such as CEO, CTO, or CSO. With 38 selected companies, that percentage corresponds to approximately 8 companies. This is lower than the 28% women-led leadership representation reported for the October 2025 selected cohort, but it remains above the 18.4% female-applicant share observed in the broader short-proposal statistics dataset published separately on this site. These metrics are not identical: one measures selected-company leadership roles, while the other measures applicant gender in short proposal data.
Technology Themes in the Selected Cohort
The publication highlights Amatera Biosciences, BTRY, Cognirobotics, Microamp Solutions, and Planeteers as examples of the selected technologies. A keyword-based scan of the 38 company descriptions in the selected-company table shows that the cohort is strongly tilted toward climate, energy, advanced materials, connectivity, space, photonics, health, and industrial automation.
| Theme Group | Companies Matched by Description Keywords | Examples From the Cohort |
|---|---|---|
| Climate, energy, batteries, materials, critical raw materials | 14 | BTRY, Planeteers, Elmery, Perovskia Solar, Fluorok |
| Space, connectivity, photonics, quantum, radar | 9 | GATE Space Innovation, ICON Photonics, Microamp Solutions, PLANQC, Radar Reticence |
| Health, medtech, biotech | 7 | Azalea Vision, MedicQuant, DiaMonTech, GlucoSet, Oxford Heartbeat |
| Robotics, manufacturing, industrial automation | 6 | CogniBotics, Nanoflex Robotics, Manus Technology Group |
| Food, agriculture, bio-based production | 3 | Amatera Biosciences, NumiMilk, Vivici |
This is not an official sector classification. It is a keyword-based reading of the published project descriptions. It still gives a useful signal: the EIC is not simply backing software companies or incremental product improvements. The selected descriptions cluster around hardware-intensive, science-heavy, capital-intensive, and scale-up-oriented technologies.
Historical Context: How Small Is This Round?
The aggregated EIC Accelerator beneficiary dataset used for this analysis contains 841 selected companies from 2021 through the May 2026 round. Within that historical table, the May 2026 cohort accounts for 4.5% of all selected companies.
By selected-company count, this is one of the smaller result rounds in the dataset. Across the 13 earlier EIC Accelerator cut-off dates in the aggregated table, the average selected-company count is 61.8 and the median is 65. The May 2026 round selected 38 companies, which is 38.5% below the prior-round average and 41.5% below the prior-round median. It is the 13th largest of 14 cut-off cohorts in the dataset, larger only than the 11 January 2023 cohort with 32 selected companies.
| Cut-Off Date | Selected Companies |
|---|---|
| 6 October 2021 | 99 |
| 5 October 2022 | 78 |
| 15 June 2022 | 75 |
| 23 March 2022 | 74 |
| 3 October 2024 | 71 |
| 13 March 2024 | 68 |
| 16 June 2021 | 65 |
| 1 October 2025 | 61 |
| 22 March 2023 | 51 |
| 21 June 2023 | 47 |
| 8 November 2023 | 42 |
| 12 March 2025 | 40 |
| 6 May 2026 | 38 |
| 11 January 2023 | 32 |
Historical Funding Mix
The EIC Accelerator selected-company dataset also shows a structural shift over time. In 2021 to 2023, the older "Grant First" category was still a visible part of the selected-company mix. From 2024 onward, the table is dominated by blended finance, grant-only, and equity-only.
| Year | Selected | Blended Finance | Grant First | Grant Only | Equity Only |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 164 | 96 (58.5%) | 47 (28.7%) | 16 (9.8%) | 5 (3.0%) |
| 2022 | 227 | 125 (55.1%) | 69 (30.4%) | 32 (14.1%) | 1 (0.4%) |
| 2023 | 172 | 99 (57.6%) | 55 (32.0%) | 17 (9.9%) | 1 (0.6%) |
| 2024 | 139 | 121 (87.1%) | 0 (0.0%) | 12 (8.6%) | 6 (4.3%) |
| 2025 | 101 | 87 (86.1%) | 0 (0.0%) | 12 (11.9%) | 2 (2.0%) |
| 2026 | 38 | 32 (84.2%) | 0 (0.0%) | 5 (13.2%) | 1 (2.6%) |
The May 2026 round is therefore not unusual because blended finance dominates. It is unusual because the cohort is small while the average package size remains high. The EIC selected fewer companies while maintaining a similar per-company financing scale to the previous round.
Historical Country Context
Across the full 2021-2026 aggregated selected-company dataset, Germany and France remain the largest countries overall, with 125 and 123 selected companies respectively. The May 2026 round strengthens France's position and adds an unusually large number of Swiss selections relative to Switzerland's historical total in this dataset.
| Country | All 2021-2026 Selected Companies in Dataset | May 2026 Round | May 2026 Round as Share of Country Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Switzerland | 8 | 4 | 50.0% |
| Luxembourg | 5 | 1 | 20.0% |
| United Kingdom | 50 | 5 | 10.0% |
| Poland | 11 | 1 | 9.1% |
| Finland | 43 | 3 | 7.0% |
| Sweden | 58 | 4 | 6.9% |
| France | 123 | 6 | 4.9% |
| Netherlands | 90 | 3 | 3.3% |
| Germany | 125 | 4 | 3.2% |
| Israel | 48 | 1 | 2.1% |
Switzerland stands out. In the aggregated table, half of all Swiss selected companies appear in the May 2026 result round. That does not mean Switzerland suddenly dominates the EIC Accelerator, because the historical Swiss base in this dataset is small. It does show that the May 2026 round is unusually strong for Swiss applicants relative to their prior representation in the selected-company data.
What Applicants Should Take From These Results
1. Reaching the interview is not enough
A 43.7% interview-stage success rate is substantial, but it still means most interview-stage proposals were not selected. Applicants should treat Step 3 as a separate competition, not a formality after the written proposal. The interview has to prove execution ability, investor readiness, strategic clarity, and credible answers under pressure.
2. The equity story matters more than ever
The budget envelope is 69.2% equity and 30.8% grant support. That makes the financing strategy central to the application. A strong EIC Accelerator candidate needs to explain why grant funding is necessary to de-risk the technology and why equity funding can credibly scale the business afterward.
3. The round rewards capital-intensive deep tech
The technology descriptions point to solid-state batteries, space propulsion, quantum computing, photonics, radar, medical devices, advanced materials, carbon capture, robotics, precision agriculture, and alternative proteins. The pattern is clear: the EIC is backing high-risk technologies with difficult development paths and large upside, not ordinary digital products.
4. Smaller cohorts can still carry large average ticket sizes
The May 2026 cohort is small compared with the historical average, but the average grant-plus-equity envelope per selected company is almost unchanged compared with the previous result update. A smaller winner list does not automatically mean smaller winner packages.
5. Seal of Excellence holders should move fast
The 95 Seal of Excellence recipients are above-threshold proposals. They did not receive EIC Accelerator funding in this round because of budget limits, not because the evaluation rejected their project quality. Those companies should use the Seal immediately in national funding discussions, regional funding applications, investor outreach, and partner conversations.
Methodology Notes
The selected-company count, interview-stage count, grant budget, equity provision, Seal of Excellence count, STEP Seal count, and women-led representation are taken from the EIC publication dated 15 June 2026. Funding-type counts, country counts, and company-level distributions are computed from the selected-company table. Historical comparisons are computed from the site's aggregated EIC Accelerator beneficiary dataset, which contains 841 selected-company records from 2021 through the May 2026 result round. The historical cohort table groups selected companies by EIC Accelerator cut-off date.
The publication does not provide the total number of full applications submitted in this batch. This article therefore does not state an overall full-application success rate. The success rate that can be calculated directly from the publication is the interview-stage success rate: 38 selected companies divided by 87 interview-stage proposals, or 43.7%.
All EIC Accelerator Winners in the June 2026 Results
The table below lists the selected companies for this result round.
| Company | Acronym | Description | Country | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GATE Space Innovation GmbH | PRO ASTRA | PROpulsion for Advanced Space Transportation and RPO Applications | Austria | 2026 |
| AZALEA VISION | ALMA | ALMA - Pioneering Smart Lens to Revolutionize Eye Care | Belgium | 2026 |
| MEDICQUANT APS | MedicQuant | Novel Point-of-Care Platform for Accurate DOAC Quantification | Denmark | 2026 |
| Elmery Oy | Elmery | The pulse of metal: Next-generation electrified hydrometallurgy enabling maximum recovery of critical and precious metals | Finland | 2026 |
| SKYFORA OY | WEATHERCTSCAN | Breakthrough GNSS meteorology technology for accurate hyperlocal weather forecasts and prediction of severe weather across the globe | Finland | 2026 |
| Soihtu DTx Oy | Meliora Next | The first personalized, precision digital intervention in a video-game therapeutic for depression | Finland | 2026 |
| Amatera Biosciences SAS | CellTera | Accelerating crop genetics with the first automated platform for single cell regeneration and early screening | France | 2026 |
| ICON Photonics | SPARC | Scalable Photonic pAckaging for high-peRformance optiCal interconnects | France | 2026 |
| MUMILK | NumiMilk | NūmiMilk: Transforming infant nutrition through mammalian cell bioproduction. | France | 2026 |
| NEXDOT | NEXSOLAR | ENHANCING THE EFFICIENCY OF SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC (PV) CELLS WITH QUANTUM DOTS THAT CAPTURE ENERGY FROM THE “INVISIBLE” LIGHT | France | 2026 |
| Spore Biotechnologies | Unburden | Lighting up microbiology: a real-time AI and biophotonics platform for rapid microbial testing | France | 2026 |
| SYNTETICA | INFINYLON | Closing the Loop on Nylon with Low-Emission Chemical Recycling | France | 2026 |
| DiaMonTech AG | NIGHT | Non-invasive Glucose Health Technology | Germany | 2026 |
| Level Nine Labs UG | L9-NANOZYME | Nanozymes: Next-generation catalysts to convert lignin into low-cost, high-performance fossil-free aromatic polyols. | Germany | 2026 |
| Planeteers GmbH | REACT Carbon | Reactor-based enhanced rock weathering system with measurement, reporting and verification for Carbon Capture and Storage | Germany | 2026 |
| PLANQC GMBH | RUBIQON | Crossing the Threshold to Fault-tolerant Digital Neutral Atom Quantum Computing | Germany | 2026 |
| PILOT PHOTONICS LTD | PICO | Photonic Integrated Converter Oscillator | Ireland | 2026 |
| Canopy Immuno-Therapeutics LTD | ADCure | Reprogramming immunity for a brighter future for autoimmune patients | Israel | 2026 |
| RAREARTH SRL | RarEarth | Rare earth recycling: fuelling the future, one magnet at a time | Italy | 2026 |
| Kore Metals SARL | Kore- SI | Cost-competitive low-carbon silicon production for European industry | Luxembourg | 2026 |
| MANUS TECHNOLOGY GROUP BV | ManusCapturePlatform | A Breakthrough EMF-Based Tracking platform to revolutionize precision motion capture and teleoperation in Robotics, AI, XR & other Industry 5.0 applications | Netherlands | 2026 |
| SENSITY B.V. | Sensity | Foundational security layer for deepfake detection | Netherlands | 2026 |
| Vivici BV | Vivitein | Development of an industrial-scale precision fermentation platform for dairy protein production | Netherlands | 2026 |
| GLUCOSET AS | CLICC | Closing the Loop In Critical Care | Norway | 2026 |
| Microamp Solutions Sp. z o.o. | Microamp Any-G | Microamp Any-G Wireless Platform | Poland | 2026 |
| COGNIBOTICS AB | HKM1800 | Empowering EU Logistics and Manufacturing with Cooperative Hybrid-Kinematic Robots | Sweden | 2026 |
| NOVATRON FUSION GROUP AB | Novatron CMMR | A novel Concave Magnetic Mirror Reactor design enabling stable plasma confinement for truly capital- efficient fusion power | Sweden | 2026 |
| Radar Reticence AB | SIFFRA | Scalable Interference-Free Radar technology for Automotive | Sweden | 2026 |
| Reactional Music Group AB | REACT | Reactional: The first platform to make music programmable, personalized, and monetizable in games | Sweden | 2026 |
| BTRY AG | BTRY | Industrialising thin-film solid-state batteries in Europe | Switzerland | 2026 |
| eightinks AG | 8inks | Enabling the Next Generation of Battery Manufacturing through Multilayer, High-Speed Electrode Coating | Switzerland | 2026 |
| Nanoflex Robotics A.G | REACT | Robotic Endovascular Access for Critical Treatment | Switzerland | 2026 |
| PEROVSKIA SOLAR AG | E-SEED | Energy Self-sufficiency by Enabling a PV cell on Every Device | Switzerland | 2026 |
| Fluorok Limited | SUS-SALT-BAT | Sustainable electrolyte salts for a resilient EU Li-ion Battery supply chain | United Kingdom | 2026 |
| Inephany Ltd | Paramorph | Revolutionising Neural Network Training with Intelligent Hyperparameter Control | United Kingdom | 2026 |
| Makesense Technology Limited | VIPER | Mobility for Visually Impaired Persons Regardless of physical location and urban interference challenges | United Kingdom | 2026 |
| Oxford Heartbeat Ltd | PreSize Surgery | Transforming brain surgery with AI-driven decision-support | United Kingdom | 2026 |
| Seloxium Ltd. | SELECTAL | Selectal: Scalable, Selective, and Low-Cost Recovery of Critical Metals from Complex Waste | United Kingdom | 2026 |
