📋 Tender Overview
As one of four companies, the German space company Hyimpulse (based in Neuenstadt am Kocher, Baden-Wurttemberg) successfully passed the evaluation phase of the Scale-Up request for the platform of the European Innovation Council (EIC) for strategic technologies for Europe (STEP). Together with investments of up to 90 million euros, the four companies are now forwarded to the EIC fund for investment decisions. The EIC STEP scale-up program provides investments between 10 and 30 million euros per company. The initiative aims to make major investments in companies that develop strategic technologies to launch them and reduce strategic dependencies. The EIC Step Scale-Up is intended to help conclude a gap in the funding of deep tech scale-up in Europe, which is geared towards digital technologies, clean and resource-efficient technologies, including net zero technologies, and biotechnologies.
Hyi pulses were founded in 2018 and developed rockets with hybrid drive. The drive technology combines liquid oxygen and paraffin wax. The goal is a first commercial flight of the SL1 rocket up to the fourth quarter of 2026 and a company valuation of 1 billion euros within five years. The company has applied for Step funds to support the development of the first stage of its SL1 rocket. The hybrid engines have already been validated by extensive tests.
The three other companies are multiple computing (quantum/artificial intelligence) in Spain, Dronamics (drones for freight delivery) in Bulgaria and Ireland as well as Classiq Technologies (quantity software) in Israel.
All of the four selected companies also receive the STEP seal, which aims to facilitate access to supplementary or alternative funds as well as EIC Business Acceleration Services.
The request to submit proposals as part of the EIC Step Scale Up remains continuously open, evaluation meetings take place quarterly.
For reading the EU Commission in Germany (13.06.2025): Investments in strategic technologies: German space company Hyimpulse is supported by start-up Foder program.
Source:
Representation of the EU Commission in Germany
Editor:
16.06.2025
By Luis Franke, VDI Technology Center GmbH
Countries / organizations:
Germany
EU
Topics:
Engineering and production
Financial support
innovation
mobility
Economy, markets
