Six European Deep-Tech Firms Selected for Potential €97M

In its 28 July 2026 selection notice, the European Innovation Council put forward six companies from France, Germany, the Netherlands and Estonia for potential STEP Scale Up equity investments totalling €97 million. Cailabs, Cylib, Paebbl, SiPearl, Skeleton Technologies Group and Vsora passed the eligibility and evaluation stages, but every proposed transaction remains subject to EIC Fund due diligence and successful negotiations.

The result is therefore a conditional investment pipeline, not six completed deals. A same-day account from StartupCafe independently identifies the same cohort and says the combined financing depends on the checks and negotiations being completed successfully.

The six companies and their potential EIC financing

The disclosed programme range is €10 million to €30 million per company, but the EIC has not published the proposed allocation for any member of this cohort. Each company below is at the same procedural stage: selected for a possible investment decision and awaiting due diligence and negotiations.

Cailabs — France. Technology: ground systems designed to make laser communications deployable. Potential EIC check: within the programme range, with the company-specific amount undisclosed. Private participation: the proposed equity is intended to form part of a larger co-invested round.
Cylib — Germany. Technology: recovering critical raw materials from end-of-life batteries. Potential EIC check: within the programme range, with no individual figure released. Private participation: expected alongside the EIC Fund rather than replaced by it.
Paebbl — the Netherlands. Technology: converting carbon dioxide into material for construction products. Potential EIC check: within the programme range, with the allocation undisclosed. Private participation: intended to contribute to the same scale-up round.
SiPearl — France. Technology: high-performance CPUs for sovereign data centres and accelerated computing. Potential EIC check: within the programme range, with no company-level amount published. Private participation: required by the programme’s co-financing structure.
Skeleton Technologies Group — Estonia. Technology: rack-to-grid power systems for next-generation AI computing infrastructure. Potential EIC check: within the programme range, with the proposed allocation undisclosed. Private participation: expected to complement the prospective EIC stake.
Vsora — France. Technology: high-performance AI inference for data centres and edge deployments. Potential EIC check: within the programme range, with no individual amount released. Private participation: intended to join the EIC Fund in a larger financing round.

Why STEP Scale Up targets much larger rounds

STEP Scale Up is designed for strategic-technology companies seeking financing beyond the size normally covered by the EIC Accelerator. Its focus is not a small standalone public investment, but an EIC Fund position capable of helping a company assemble a substantially larger round with private investors.

The official STEP Scale Up terms specify equity-only investments of €10 million to €30 million and a total programme budget of €300 million for 2026. An application must include a pre-commitment from one qualified investor covering at least 20% of a target round of €50 million to €150 million; that round must also be at least three to five times the requested EIC investment.

This structure explains why the €97 million headline is not the total financing the six businesses may ultimately seek. The public commitment is intended to attract private capital into larger company-level rounds, while leaving the EIC Fund to settle valuation, ownership and other transaction terms after its checks. Neither the target round nor the identity of the prospective co-investor was disclosed for any of the six companies.

The selection concentrates on computing, infrastructure and clean technology

Four companies address computing or communications infrastructure. SiPearl and Vsora are developing processors for sovereign data centres, accelerated computing and AI inference; Skeleton Technologies Group is working on the power systems needed by AI computing infrastructure; and Cailabs supplies ground technology for laser communications.

Cylib and Paebbl cover the clean and resource-efficient side of the programme. Cylib focuses on recovering critical raw materials from used batteries, while Paebbl turns carbon dioxide into construction material. The cohort consequently spans STEP’s digital and deep-tech and clean-technology categories, with no biotechnology company selected in this round.

The evaluation narrowed 24 applications to 17 interviews with independent experts, after which six companies met the eligibility and evaluation criteria within the available investment budget. Six other companies that cleared the quality threshold but were not selected for investment will receive the STEP Seal alongside the chosen cohort, potentially helping them pursue complementary or alternative financing.

What “selected” means before due diligence ends

Selection means that a company has cleared the call’s evaluation and can proceed towards an EIC Fund investment decision. It does not establish a final valuation, ownership stake, investment amount or closing date, nor does it guarantee that the parties will reach acceptable terms.

The distinction is material for companies and prospective co-investors. Until due diligence is complete and negotiated documents are approved and signed, the six businesses cannot treat an undisclosed share of the €97 million as received capital. The EIC Fund may also settle terms that differ from the assumptions used when the applications were evaluated.

Private capital is the intended multiplier

The programme’s reliance on co-investment follows the wider EIC funding model. A Commission-hosted summary of the 2026 impact report says EIC-backed companies have collectively raised €15.5 billion, while each euro invested by the EIC Fund has leveraged €3.50 in additional capital and more than 1,000 investors have participated alongside it.

Those figures describe the broader portfolio, not an expected outcome for the newly selected businesses. The eventual multiplier for this cohort will depend on which transactions survive due diligence, what terms the EIC Fund approves and how much private capital each company secures.

Final allocations remain unresolved

As of the selection, the confirmed result is that six strategic-technology companies cleared the programme’s eligibility and evaluation stages and entered the EIC Fund’s investment process. Individual allocations, valuations, signed commitments and completed private rounds had not been disclosed.

The next material developments will be company-specific due-diligence outcomes, negotiated terms and final investment decisions. Only completed agreements will establish how much of the proposed €97 million is invested and how much additional private financing it attracts.

Europe Picks Six Deep-Tech Scale-Ups for €97M—Funding Is Not Final Yet