How this EU-funded initiative is helping European startups enter India

One of the main goals of the European Union’s research and innovation funding program, called Horizon 2020, is internationalization of European startups by helping them enter different markets. One of these markets is India. The European Commission introduced the EU-India Innocenter initiative to help European tech startups to explore and scale in the country.

Last month, the EU-India Innocenter conducted a week-long programme in Hyderabad and Bangalore in which eight European startups got an opportunity to interact with venture capitalists, partners, and other stakeholders. In an interview, Juliane Frömmter, the program lead of the EU-India Innocenter discussed the initiative and its goals. Edited excerpts:

What is the EU-India Innocenter project?

The project has been initiated and funded by the European Commission. It’s about raising awareness about India as a business destination. We work to break down the opportunities that exist in India for European startups through incubators, accelerators, funds, etc.

In the past, there have been similar initiatives for taking European startups to regions like China, Brazil, and the US – and more recently Africa. This is part of the European Commission’s efforts to promote European innovation around the globe.

The India-specific initiative started in 2021 and the budget allocated is €3 million for three years (2021-2023). Our consortium, which consists of six partners (four legal entities in Europe and two in India), applied for the tender put out by the commission, and won it.

How are you helping European startups to enter and do business in India?

We work in phases. The first one is called ‘explore and validate’, which is the pre-entry market phase to understand the business opportunity of a particular startup and its service/product in India. Typically, the startups have a business model that's tailored to the European market or the home market, which may not fit in the Indian context. 

So we help them understand the differences and find their fit in the Indian market by partnering with customers, mentors, etc. 

The next stage is the ‘enter and scale’ stage, where these companies set up business in India and scale up their operations.

Our budget comes from the research and innovation department of the European Commission. Most of the startups that we work with have strong IP that may even originate from an academic background. So all the startups are deep science and deep tech companies that bring specific value and unique differentiation to India.

In addition to expert mentorship, this program offers startups assistance with business modeling to fit the unique Indian market.

How are the startups selected for this initiative?

We have supported almost 120 startups (set in various phases mentioned earlier). About 50 of them have made it to at least the explore and validate stage and they come with a collective funding of 360 million euros.

In the first stage, we invite startups for a half-day workshop which we call prepare to expand. Startups interested in exploring India can attend it.

The interested startups are then put through a rigorous selection process. There is a virtual selection demo day. Mentor experts from local ecosystems assess if the startup can be a good fit for India. We also consider parameters like the team, the product, product readiness, financial readiness, and suitability. Depending on all these factors, along with the number of seats available for the program, startups are selected for the explore and validate phase. For the enter and scale phase, stricter diligence is performed. 

How long are the startups associated with the program?

For the explore and validate phase, we have 8-12 startups per cohort. We engage with them for up to eight weeks typically. For the scaling-up phase, the startups are associated with us for a little longer – up to three months.