European Data Incubator (EDI)

The European Data Incubator to launch its first call for SMEs and start-ups using Big Data

European start-ups will now have the opportunity boost their business’ products and services

The European Data Incubator (EDI), which offers a fund of €5 million to support SMEs and new companies specialising in Big Data technologies, has opened its first call today – 28th March.

The EDI initiative, funded by the European Commission through the Horizon2020 programme, is a great opportunity for entrepreneurship: it will provide companies with a large technological infrastructure, data and equity-free funding
A single company could be awarded up to €100,000 equity-free funding by applying to this call, which will remain open until the 27th of June. Up to 45 teams will be selected to participate in an event in Berlin for the first acceleration phase of the initiative called "Explore".

The 16 best teams will enter the second "Experiment" phase in which they will be required to draw up a business plan, a viable minimum product, and will be evaluated at different milestones.

The top 6 teams will pass into the final "Evolve" phase, focused on promoting investment. For each phase, different amounts of funding are committed: €5,000 for each of the 45 teams in the first phase, €80,000 for each of the 16 second phase teams, and €15,000 for each of the 6 finalists.

EDI will allow the participation of teams of entrepreneurs who have not yet established an SME. In the near future, the incubator will be present in the EU-Startup Summit event on the 24th of April in Barcelona and will have a stand at the FIWARE Global Summit in Porto on the 8th and 9th of May.

Interested companies must complete this form and choose between a series of "challenges", including: a description of the team, the proposed product or service, Big Data technologies used, potential business, growth strategy, etc. The documentation of the call is now available.

Supporting entrepreneurship to boost Big Data

The main objective of the European Data Incubator project (EDI) is to promote Big Data among European companies. The University of Deusto leads the consortium of the initiative that comprises 20 entities from 10 European countries, including ZABALA Innovation Consulting, which participates as coordinator and evaluator of the calls for the project. EDI will help and support companies and start-ups to avoid the obstacles they encounter when trying to develop their data exploitation strategies such as the access to data and funding.

The incubator will host private data from a wide range of organizations such as the EFE news agency, Elektro Ljubljana, Migros, Sonae, Jot Internet Media RACC, Technische Universität Berlin, Ubimet, Vía Verde, Virtual Energy Solutions, Volkswagen Navarra, who have defined the business challenges that need tobe addressed. EDI core consortium is comprised by the University of Deusto, ZABALA Innovation Consulting, F6S, Engineering Ingegneria Informatica and Etventure Startup Hu

Related link: cordis.europa.eu