Recital 29

(29) Horizon Europe is the Union’s key funding programme for research and innovation, and the European Innovation Council (EIC) provides for support, in particular for innovations with breakthrough potential and of a disruptive nature with scale-up potential that may be too risky for private investors. Additional flexibility should be provided for under Horizon Europe, so that the EIC Accelerator can provide equity-only support to non-bankable SMEs, including start-ups, and non-bankable small mid-caps, carrying out innovation, in particular to those working on the technologies supported by the STEP, regardless of whether they previously received other types of support from the EIC Accelerator. The implementation of the financial instrument which is the part of the EIC Accelerator that provides investment through equity or other repayable form (the ‘EIC Fund’) is currently limited to a maximum investment amount of EUR 15 million except in exceptional cases and cannot accommodate follow-up financing rounds or larger investment amounts. Allowing for equity-only support for non-bankable SMEs and small mid-caps would address the existing market gap, in particular for investment needs in the range of EUR 15 to 50 million. Moreover, experience has shown that the amounts committed for the EIC Pilot under Horizon 2020 established by Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (26) are not fully used. Regulation (EU) 2021/695should also be amended to reflect the increased envelope for the European Defence Fund.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-10-13 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.