TLDR:
- Venture capital for start-ups is limited in central and eastern Europe, with a significant decrease in investment in Widening countries.
- The HICEE project aims to address the investment gap by supporting tech transfer offices, enhancing knowledge-sharing, and building investor infrastructure for early-stage ventures.
Venture capital for start-ups is in short supply across Europe, with central and eastern Europe particularly hard hit. A recent study found that investment in start-ups in Widening countries fell by 57% between 2022 and 2023, against a 45% drop across the continent as a whole. To address this challenge, the Healthy Investment Central Eastern Europe (HICEE) project, under the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Health community, aims to share effective strategies to attract investors.
The HICEE project brings together business acceleration service providers, investor networks, and innovation hubs from Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia, as well as Belgium and the Netherlands. The program focuses on supporting tech transfer offices, cultivating knowledge-sharing, and building suitable investor infrastructure for early-stage ventures. The goal is to equip start-up support organizations with new strategies to attract investment and prepare trainers to impact multiple innovation projects each year.
Challenges faced by start-ups and local venture capitalists in the region include a lack of knowledge about fundraising and investing, as well as a lack of confidence from international investors. The HICEE project, along with other initiatives like the SynergistEIC program, are working towards bridging the investment gap in central and eastern Europe. Through enhancing investment readiness, technology transfer, and creating incentives for co-investment and cross-border collaborations, these projects aim to attract more funding to the region and support start-up growth.
