EIC Pre-Accelerator: Tactical Playbook For Startup Founders

The €500K Deep-Tech Grant Funding That Most Startups Will Miss

EIC Pre-Accelerator is about to launch.

It’s a new EU funding instrument offering substantial grants to deep-tech startups from Widening and Horizon-Associated countries.

…AND even more importantly… a fast track to EIC Accelerator 2nd round (full proposal)!

Yes, you read it correctly!

Widening startups ONLY! 

Your ticket into EIC Accelerator! 

And the cost of it - fully covered by EIC!

If your startup fits the bill, this might be the best chance you will get to join the European deep-tech funding big league.

Most founders in Widening countries will miss it because of the same issues that kept them out of the main EIC funding game since day one.

EIC Accelerator performance by country groups in 4 (totally not) fun facts:

Widening startups aren’t failing because the tech isn’t good.

They are failing because…

It’s Never Been a Level Playing Field - and That’s the Point

Widening startups are constantly in an uphill battle.

• No one helping you decode the messages wrapped up in brain-murdering bureaucratic inferno that is official documentation
• No one breaking down what the program is actually looking for
  
• No one explaining how your proposal builds evaluators' trust. Or loses it in a split second.
  
• No one offering a state sponsored  co-funding guarantee

And yet, for limited EIC funding you’re competing against startups that have all that, and more.

It’s just the systemic bug we inherited - and it’s up to us to find ways to overcome it.

The Pre-Accelerator itself solves the competition problem.

This time its Widening startups ONLY!  that you have to best.

ARE YOU PREPARED TO DO IT?

Well informed? You know all about the open call?

You have all the skills onboarded and balanced properly? 

You know exactly what you are expected to do and how you will do it?

If not, this Playbook is your unfair advantage.

What This Playbook Actually Does

We don’t explain you proposal templates.
We don’t walk you through the submission portal.
We don’t summarize EU rules that are already public.

Instead, we reverse engineer the process. We start from the EIC officials decision to approve funding, and go back all the way to your decision to apply for it.

Why is this €20M program being launched?

What does the European Commission want to achieve with this pre-accelerator? What’s the underlying logic behind it?  

When you ask someone for money, shouldn't you know the reason why they are even given it?

Who are they hoping to fund?

What kind of founder, company, mindse makes evaluators feel safe to award funding? What signals are they unconsciously filtering for - and what makes them say “no” without hesitation?

What should you start preparing now?

Before the call even opens, there’s a long list of hard, unsexy work you need to do to be ready. Most founders skip it because its boring. By the time the call opens in May 2025, they s will be racing the clock and eventually rely on generic placeholder narratives 

BUT…

You’re asking for €500K. If you plan to look like someone who’s worth it - This is a place for you!

This Playbook is written with the intention to inform and prepare you.

Not to confuse further and bore you to death with tons of administrative fluff and "eloquent" professional language, like Chat GPT fueled consultants on Linkedin.

What’s inside?

• Every known detail about the 2025 EIC Pre-Accelerator before the call is even officially open
• Everything that is possible to piece together based on unofficial info, leaked drafts, conference talks, insiders insights, and every dirty move we were able to pull off just to obtain useful info for you
• Spy-cam view from the opposite side: What evaluators need to read to feel confident approving you
• Full breakdown of how they see you before they decide whether you will get the money or not: What evaluators will look for, and how to melt their financial hearts 
• Tactical guidance on key strategic preparation that you can do even before the call is public, so you enter the race with head start
• Case Study: Fictional deep-tech startup who applied for EIC funding twice:
  • first time - as you would, so you don’t have to
  • second time - as you should, and you will once you apply the Playbook magic
• Lifetime updates - we’ll keep the Playbook current as the official call is announced and details emerge
  

EIC Pre-Accelerator Tactical Playbook is the first resource that skips teaching you how to fill forms. 

We take you straight into the vipers nest and train you in anticipating how evaluators actually read your sentences. We show you:

✅ What tiny red flags will quietly kill your application

✅ How to signal credibility and competence without overhyping your tech

✅ Why sounding pompous ≠ being fundable 

✅ How good tech with bad framing gets rejected, and how strategic alignment wins.

This Is For You If:

✅ You’re building deep tech - not just apps or pitches, but real, R&D-intensive products
✅ You’re based in a Widening EU country or Horizon-Associated country
✅ You’ve already pushed your tech to at least lab validation stage
✅ You know you’ve got the potential but you don’t want to guess your way through the process again

Get Ahead. Stay Ahead.

The Pre-Accelerator isn’t a mystery. But it’s also not plug-and-play.

Most teams will miss it because they didn’t see it coming.
Others will rush it and repeat the same mistakes that kept them out of the EIC Accelerator.

You don’t have to be one of them.

Get the Playbook now
And give yourself the unfair advantage - before anyone else realizes it’s needed.

One time purchase, lifetime access, regular updates, unlimited value!

Let there be grant!

You take €500K grant, and the only thing you have to do in return...

there is no hidden camera, I checked, it's totally real...

...only thing you have to do in return is - take €2,5M grant afterwards. Go figure.

- said real person