Central and Eastern Europe accounted for just 3.2% of all European venture capital investments in 2021: start-ups in this region received on average €1.2 million in investments, a third of the European average of 3.8 million euros. Raising capital is one of the biggest challenges for startups in the Central and Eastern European region. The reasons are the lack of seeds and investors, as well as the willingness of investors to make cross-border investments.
The HICEE project is managed by the European health innovation network EIT Health, which aims to increase innovation in Central and Eastern Europe. The project partners are several business acceleration companies and investors from Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and innovation centers from Belgium and the Netherlands.
“Studies show that the lack of investment in Central and Eastern Europe is due to the lack of a critical mass of both projects and investors. HICEE solves the problem by supporting technology transfer centers, encouraging the sharing of necessary knowledge and building a ‘investor infrastructure for startups,’ explained Magda Krakowiak, head of the EIT Health business accelerator, how the program helps startups in health and science successfully enter the market.
3 million euros will be included
The HICEE project aims to create sustainable start-up ecosystems, attract local and international investors, provide support to start-ups to reduce risks and share success stories to attract new investors. The first activities of the project will receive impetus in the countries where the project partners are located: Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia, but the scope and possibilities of the project will soon be extended to start-ups from other European countries, including Start- Estonian ups. The program is expected to support at least ten seed support organizations and technology transfer centers with the new methodology.
The project also aims to create a network of trainers, who will in turn support up to 150 innovation projects or start-ups each year. Other expected outcomes include supporting 25 healthcare and science start-ups to become more investment-ready in international markets to attract investments from other countries. The project also published an investment policy handbook and materials to help create an informed investment community.
The HICEE project aims at innovation through cooperation between technology transfer centers, universities, investors and startups. The program also aims to collaborate with the European Investment Fund, regional and national innovation agencies and key European policy actors to create an environment that fosters long-term growth and creates connections for innovation.
Partner of HICEE
The project includes ten institutions from seven European countries: EIT Health (DE) as coordinator, its subsidiary EIT Health SI (DE) and partners Civitta (SK), Cobinangels (PL), Crowdberry (SK), EIT Health InnoStars (InnoStars ) (DE), the Hungarian Business Angel Network (HunBAN) (HU), the Ljubljanski Univerzitetni Incubator (SI), MEDVIA (BE) and TU Delft (NL).
Furthermore, the implementation of the project is supported by KU Leuven (BE), Danube Angels (AT). Hungarian Non-Profit Export Promotion Agency, Inc. (HU), Business Angels Europe BAE (BE), Karolinska Institutet Innovations AB KII (SE), European Investment Fund EIF (LU), Invest Europe IE (BE ), Arima doo / Business Angels of Slovenia (SI).
Most HICEE project partners are already actively participating in activities in their respective regions. Civitta manages the acceleration programme, furthermore Civitta, TU Delft, Ljubljanski univerzitetni incubator and InnoStars have previous experience of cooperation with the DRIVE and RIS Jumpstarter programmes. EIT Health and EIF also have previous experience of cooperation and offer venture capital deal flows to European investors through the Venture Center of Excellence (VCoE) program linked to the €150 million Sustainable Development Umbrella Fund (SDUF).
“HICEE represents an important step in creating a dynamic innovation ecosystem in Central and Eastern Europe. We will use EIT Health InnoStars to widely implement the project results Regional innovation program (RIS), which operates in 13 European regions. Thanks to the collaboration of stakeholders, investors and start-ups, I am optimistic that the program will leave a lasting mark on the economic and healthcare landscape of the region,” added Balazs Furjes, CEO of EIT Health InnoStars.
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2024-01-22 17:00:00
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