Key Points About Horizon 2020 And SMEs Start Up Business Grants

To begin with a little bit about you. You have launched a Startup and it is based on an innovative concept, product or service which is most likely to by and large disrupt the existing markets. You are searching for quick financial support of a couple of millions of pounds. You have in place a working prototype/demo and you plan to carry on developing the new product or service.The European Union has for the first time in history, that dates back 60 years, introduced programs aimed at providing direct funds to entrepreneurs, StartUps, and SMEs. This cluster of programs is collectively termed "HORIZON 2020" programme that is expected to make available €80 billion in grant funding, of which €2.8 billion is purely for business people, New Companies and SMEs. In other words, you can expect to receive direct financial investment for your Startup or SME without surrendering value or paying back later.

SME Instrument Phase 1

This category grants 50,000 euros and facilitates seed-funding to research and gauge the technical and commercial feasibility of breakthrough innovation that your StartUp aims to accomplish. You can, for example, fund risk assessment activities, design or market studies, and intellectual property exploration. The eventual objective of this funding is to introduce a new product, service or process in the market, likely through the innovative use of existing technologies, methods or business processes.

SME Instrument Phase 2

This category of, for SMEs or start-up business grants, offers to fund in the range of €500,000 to € 2.5 million for innovation projects supported by a sound and strategic business plan. You can finance a range of activities like prototyping, miniaturization, scaling-up, design, performance verification, testing, demonstration, development of pilot lines, validation for market replication; and a host of activities that allow for accelerating and scaling-up StartUps and SMEs, to help them succeed.

What An Entrepreneur Should Look Forward To?

As a matter of first importance, from an industry viewpoint, the results indicate that the primary sectors funded by SME Instrument Phase 2 are health (including biotech) and engineering (including energy, manufacturing, etc.). From a company maturity angle, we can see that the average age of a company funded under the Phase 2 of the Instrument is 4 to 6 years, with a team size on an average ranging between 8 and 18 people. The "perfect candidate" has a capacity to show a solid track record in business enterprise, with no less than €1 million in private or public funding raised before applying.

Following are some key points to help your goals of getting start-up business grants :

• Never undervalue level of detail of the business plan. The more details you incorporate, the better your odds get. # Don’t complicate, work on the flow of the documents, and focus on making them look smart. # Focus on the program and be ready to give 200 hours to the application—most likely you'll have to submit it a few times before being accepted. # If you don't know of something, look for guidance!

Conclusion

In spite of the fact that the program is intrinsically competitive the stories from SME Instrument-funded companies affirm that it is worth it. All recipients affirm that the grant has contributed a lot to their growth and success, offering a unique mix of close to market activities, for example, finalizing testing and validating the product on the market. Notwithstanding that, there's the "label effect" that offers an exclusive credibility stamp, allowing the business people to benefit from the reputational value of the SME Instrument label with a powerful de-risking impact on the investors.

Zaz Ventures is the leading Service provider in Fast track to Innovation, startup funding, startup finance, start-up business grants. Browse our website now for more details.