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EIT Community Supernovas Rocket Up Programme

Deadline: 9-Jun-23

The European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) is accepting proposals for the Supernovas Rocket Up Programme to identify and work with Start-ups in their operations, products and services for a successful definition and implementation of an entry strategy to a new European market.

The Rocket Up programme provides a custom-made programme, mixing insightful and inspiring group sessions with hand-picked and exceptional mentors to support the company achieve its objectives in the prioritized destination and achieve faster growth.

Aims

With this goal, EIT Community Supernovas aims at:

  • Increasing the presence and role of women in the EU deep tech ecosystem, both on the entrepreneurial and the early-stage investment sides.
  • Empower women-led deep tech start-ups to maximize their business growth potential.
  • Connect women investors to increase their deal flow and boost their role.
  • Inspire role models (both entrepreneurial and investor) in the ecosystem, enhancing female visibility.
Content and Methodology
  • Rocket-up is a three-month programme that focus on the expansion stages identified as critical to differentiating a successful entry strategy. Three parts of the program will follow the structure outlined below: –
    • Module 1: Choose. Week 1-5 Participants work on identifying success factors in their home market, translating them into parameters to measure the potential for new markets, finally selecting and validating the best market to expand to next and finally introducing the final selection in their pitch deck.
    • Module 2: Plan. Week 5-10 The programme reviews important factors for a successful expansion planning, such as localization of communication and marketing needs, risk mitigation, differences in business cultures, talent recruitment and fundraising for international expansion.
    • Module 3: Land. Week 10-15 Start-ups learn how to define their successful entry strategy, understanding best practices in relation with partnerships in target market and defining an implementation path. Finally, the programme also reviews how to repeat the process in future expansions.
  • The program delivers the support for the three modules in forms of group sessions, individualized mentoring, and connection to the respective EIT.
    • Group sessions
      • EIT provides online training sessions to set the academic base on how to expand a company beyond its home borders. Start-ups are given a structured perspective, valuable insights, and examples, given by international expansion experts, and including online interaction and peer to peer learning.
    • 1:1 mentoring
      • Through a needs and expectation assessment to the selected start-ups, the programme connects the companies with mentors and networking opportunities all around EU. Industry experts are scouted and identified inside and outside the EIT community, so they can fulfil the needs of the selected start-ups, with the aim of providing expert advice on the selection of the target market, strategy to land, insights on the new ecosystem, connections to potential customers and soft-landing resources.
    • Connection to EIT
      • As a cross-EIT Community activity, the programme connects the start-up to the respective Community (Urban Mobility, Food or Manufacturing) through assigning a representative with the responsibility to explain possible further collaborations within the respective community. Each EIT Community has other ways to further support start-ups, through investment, acceleration programmes, pilots with stakeholders or cities, among others.
What you get?
  • An academic perspective on how to expand internationally.
  • Tailor-made mentoring with hand-picked business and regional experts.
  • Access to EIT Community networks and other financial opportunities.
  • A network of female founders.
  • An organised mission to target region, providing you with contacts at your destination.
  • Visibility through EIT communication channels.

Duration: The 15-week EU-funded programme runs from September to December 2023.

Programme Outcomes
  • Know which market to expand to and why.
  • Define a go-to-market strategy and actionable to-do list.
  • Meet the right stakeholders and potential new partners.
  • Grow your network with experts and mentors.
  • Connect with other female-led start-ups.
Activities

In the business plan of 2023-2025, Supernovas comprises 5 key activities:

  • Rocket Up: support female-led start-ups grow international through training and mentoring (from market identification to entry).
  • Women 2 Invest: support and access to women in the early stage of their careers to early-stage investment funds, by training recent STEAM graduates in the fundamentals of venture investment to help them get an internship on this industry.
  • EIT-EIC Women Leadership Programme: upscale leadership and growth skills to empower women-led high-tech and deep tech start-ups through training, mentoring, and coaching.
  • EIT Women Community of Investors: connect women investors, both with each other to increase their deal flow and boost their role, and with female entrepreneurs where startups can have direct access to investment professionals and gender bias can be reduced.
  • Data Room: gather, organize, and showcase data on women-led start-ups supported by the EIT Community. To inspire, monitor and showcase role models across the ecosystem.
Eligibility Criteria
  • This call is open to start-ups that meet the following criteria:
    • Female-led, which means to have a woman in a leading role (founder or C-level);
    • The applicant must be a private “legal entity”;
    • The submitted application is in English language and the female representative hasfluent spoken English;
    • A team with at least 2 FTE, not a single founder;
    • Start-up registered in a Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU) including their outermost regions and third countries associated to Horizon Europe;
  • With relation with the focus areas of EIT Urban Mobility, EIT Food and/or EIT Manufacturing. These are:
    • EIT Urban Mobility: Active mobility, City logistics, Public realm, Future mobility, Mobility and energy, Urban Air Mobility, Waterway transportation & Water logistics, Connected & Autonomous Vehicles, and Sensors & training data.
    • EIT Food: Alternative proteins, Sustainable agriculture, Targeted nutrition, Sustainable aquaculture, Digital traceability, and Circular food systems.
    • EIT Manufacturing: Flexible production systems, Low environmental footprint systems & circular economy, Digital & collaborative solutions, and Human machine co-working.
  • In addition, successful applicants will be requested before joining the acceleration programmes to guarantee the availability of the female leader to participate in the program.

For more information, visit European Institute of Innovation & Technology.

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