The subsidy scheme launched at the beginning of this summer to hire innovation brokers proved successful. The Top Sector Energy has now been able to allocate slightly more than 95% of the 100,000 euros in budget to entrepreneurs active in the energy transition. These entrepreneurs were given a financial contribution from Energy Innovation NL of a maximum of €10,000 for hiring an external expert, a so-called innovation broker.
The applications show that almost half of the entrepreneurs could use help in developing the value proposition and drawing up the business plan. In addition, entrepreneurs have a great need (one-third of the applications) to find private financing during an investment round.
Most start-ups and scale-ups are built up around a technological innovation, with founders with a strong technical background. “It is good to realize that although it always starts with the technology, in the end, there are business aspects that are essential actually to bring innovations to the market. For example, finding the right value proposition (which problem do you solve for whom and why?) but also attracting private financing to survive the Valley of Death. In short, with this subsidy scheme, we help entrepreneurs. So that they can attract expertise and (partly) take in the knowledge, to speed up the process of bringing the innovations successfully to market ”, says Martin Weissmann of the Financing Desk.
For entrepreneurs who are active with energy innovations in the field of raw materials and processes in the industry (Mission C of the IKIA) there is still a small budget available for support by an innovation broker.
Curious about this subsidy scheme and the opening date of the next round? Please, contact Martin Weissmann of the Financing Desk.
The Financing Desk is a joint initiative of TKI Energy & Industry, TKI New Gas, TKI Urban Energy, TKI Wind op Zee and the System Integration program under the flag of the Energy Innovation NL. Our goal is to help SMEs bring their innovations to market by providing support and assistance with financing issues.
Would you like to know more about the innovation broker scheme? Find out more here