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Select Quotes From This Episode:
“The EU Innovation Fund is exciting. It’s one of the largest climate funding programs in the entire world.” - Joel
“It’s not competing with equity dollars. It’s extremely complimentary and they’re complimentary both ways, obviously.” - Joel
“If you do want to talk about what we would consider climate-related benefits, you are going to want to frame them as a co-benefit and talk about them in different ways, like waste valorization or energy efficiency or supply chain resilience.” - Joel
“The best high-level advice I can give on this side is to be as strategic as possible, certainly with your funding strategy and be able to think about taking advantage of the entire capital stack.” - Joel
“It’s really important to be strategic with every single element of that capital stack and making sure that you’re not just applying to grants that come across your desk opportunistically, but really being comprehensive in your identification of grants...” - Joel
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Hey everyone, welcome back to CleanTechies!
Today, we’re diving into one of the biggest non-dilutive funding opportunities out there: the EU Innovation Fund.
We’re talking about €40 billion euros being deployed between now and 2030 to scale up the world’s most promising low-carbon technologies…
And the crazy part?
Only a fraction of it has been spent.
To break it all down, I’m joined by Joel Armin-Hoiland, Founder and CEO of Climate Finance Solutions, and the go-to expert on non-dilutive funding.
You might remember Joel from Episode 258, where we unpacked critical minerals funding from the DOE, and now he’s back to take us global.
In this episode, Joel explains how the EU Innovation Fund is fueling deployment-ready tech (think steel, cement, hydrogen, CCUS, renewables, and energy storage) and how founders can actually win a slice of that €40 billion.
We talked about several things, such as the €5.5 billion call expected to drop this December and why the EU is favoring commercial-scale over early R&D. Plus, Joel’s insider advice on how to phrase your applications, because yes, reviewers are literally searching for keywords
Since 2020, Joel and his team have already helped raise over $1.6 billion with a 90% success rate, so if you’re serious about securing non-dilutive capital, you should really check it out.
The funding window is opening fast, and the founders who prepare well are the ones who’ll win big later!
P.S. We’re making a big announcement this quarter, so make sure to be updated by listening to our future episodes.
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📝 Show Notes:
Topics
Here are some more key timestamps from the episode:
00:00 - Introduction to Joel Armin-Hoiland, founder of Climate Finance Solutions, and the podcast topic: the EU Innovation Fund.
01:00 Climate Finance Solutions’ Mission
05:00 Overview of the EU Innovation Fund
07:12 Focus on deep decarbonization in energy-intensive sectors
08:30 Explanation of “calls” vs. “auctions” in funding
18:20 Requirements for Winning a Grant
24:30 Typical stage of startups applying: Series A at least.
26:40 What are they looking for in terms of technology
29:08 Co-financing
33:25 Application timeline: Call release in December, due in April.
37:40 Pitfalls and misconceptions: simple mistakes can lead to disqualification.
39:40 Role of VCs: providing co-financing through contingent commitment letters.
42:25 Comparison of US and EU VCs
43:30 Core takeaways: EU’s focus on industrial competitiveness through decarbonization.
46:30 Comparison with US approach (IRA or DOE funding programs).
49:45 EU’s shifting focus from emissions to accelerating innovation.
Links
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This podcast is NOT investment advice. Do your homework and due diligence before investing in anything discussed on this podcast.
