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29/10/2026

🚀 Only 3 spots left! Application deadline extended to 5 November 2026!

Are you building a startup in agrifood, agritech or food biotech? Don't miss your chance to join “Accelerate Your Startup” - a free online accelerator organised by AgriFood Lithuania as part of the INNOVATE-EU project.

🌱 What's in it for you?

✅ 5 interactive online sessions (12–18 November 2026)
✅ Personal coaching and pitch preparation
✅ Opportunity for the top 3 startups to pitch to investors at the Agrifood Forum in Vilnius on 25 November (travel covered)
✅ 2 months of individual consultations after the programme

🏆 Last year's participants rated the programme 4.9/5!

⏳ Only 3 places remaining – apply by Thursday, 5 November 2026!

👉 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScCHl0iPp2SCietEkcFYyS3doElyMKIrR_H0l-Mdoxtvkhq6A/viewform

Funded by the EU's Horizon Europe programme through Innovate-EU (GA No. 101193439).

15/10/2026

🌱 Ready to accelerate your agrifood or agritech startup?

🚀 Applications are open for Accelerate Your Startup — an online acceleration programme designed to help ambitious agrifood and agritech founders grow their businesses, sharpen their pitches, and connect with investors!

What’s in it for your startup?

✅ 5 online evening sessions (17:00–20:00 CET) packed with practical insights and expert guidance.

✅ Pitch to investors! The top 3 startups will have the opportunity to pitch live at the Agrifood Forum in Vilnius, with travel costs covered.

✅ Personalised support: Every participating startup will receive 2 months of one-to-one consultations to help turn ideas into action.

📅 Programme dates: 12–18 November 2026
💻 Format: Online
🎯 Who can apply: Agrifood and agritech startup founders
⏳ Application deadline: 1 November 2026
⚡ Only 10 places available!

Whether you're refining your business model, preparing for investment, or looking to scale your innovation, this is your opportunity to take the next step.

👉 Apply now! Scan the QR code in the image to register.

🌍 Organised within the InnovateEU project, funded by the European Union under Horizon Europe (Grant Agreement No. 101193439). EIT Food accreditation is in progress.

AgriFood Lithuania | smart green | Latvian Food Cluster | IDiA Agrupación Empresarial Innovadora | Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum | Asociatia Clusterelor din Romania | Cluster Imago-Mol

07/10/2026

🚨 Last chance to apply!

Applications for the MedTech Funding Lab in Iași close on 9 October!

If you’re a European MedTech or healthcare startup preparing to raise investment, join us on 21 October for an intensive, hands-on day focused on fundraising and investor-ready pitching.

✈️ Up to €300 travel & accommodation support
🎟️ Opportunity for free access to the AI4-MED Conference
🎯 Only 15 startups selected

📍 Iași, Romania | 📅 21 October 2026
⏳ Apply by 9 October

👉 Apply now: https://lnkd.in/dc4g33MG

30/09/2026

If you’re building a 🧬 MedTech or HealthTech startup and you’re ready to move beyond the science, this is for you.

Once the technology is there, the next challenge is turning it into a business that can grow and attract investment. How do you value your technology? How do you prepare for fundraising? And how do you communicate your science and startup in a way investors can understand?

That’s exactly what the MedTech Funding Lab is here to help you with.

On 🎯 October 21, in Iasi, you’ll spend one intensive day working through two practical masterclasses:

💰 Fundraising Toolkit by Rubik Hub
Get hands-on with valuation, cap table mechanics, data room structure, VC profiling, and practical tips & tricks drawn from real fundraising stories, alongside Robert Cotuna, Cătălina Poloboc and Ionut Amariei

🎤 Pitching like a PRO
Learn how to build a strong investor pitch with Henk Joos, covering your product, market, Go-to-Market strategy, competitors, and team, plus what you should never pitch to investors.

🇷🇴 For Romanian pre-seed startups, the programme also offers the opportunity to enter the HealthTech Investors Summit 2026 regional preselection.

⏳️ Applications are open until next Friday!

Organised within Innovate-EU, in partnership with Cluster Imago-Mol and Rubik Hub.

24/09/2026

Raising capital is not just about the pitch deck and financial planning. It's about understanding what investors really drive and if you have the right fit.

Many early-stage founders know they will need funding at some point.

But when it comes to venture capital, a lot of questions remain: 👉 How do investors think and how do they make decisions? Is VC actually the right funding path for my startup? And how can you best prepare for funding rounds and investors meetings?

That's exactly what our Venture Capital Masterclass is designed for. It’s relevant for GreenTech startups that are:
🔹 Exploring venture capital as a growth financing option
🔹 Preparing for their first fundraising conversations
🔹 Looking to understand investor expectations and decision-making
🔹 Building a financing strategy for future growth
🔹 Ready to gain practical insights from experienced investors and ecosystem experts

🎯 Our Venture Capital Masterclass combines practical knowledge, investor perspectives, and real-world fundraising insights tailored to early-stage GreenTech startups. Across four interactive online sessions, participants will learn about venture capital fundamentals, fundraising strategies, investment processes, and the key success factors that shape investor decisions.

🚀 Because raising money is one challenge. Finding the right investors to help scale your vision is another.

💡 Know a founder or GreenTech startup that could benefit from this opportunity? Tag them in the comments! 👇

👉 Learn more: Venture Capital Masterclass

18/09/2026

🌍 What should Europe stop doing—and what should it do differently—to build stronger start-up ecosystems?

This was one of the central questions in the panel discussion I had the pleasure of moderating today: “Building Stronger Start-up Ecosystems: Innovation, Investment and Growth in Europe.”

Several clear conclusions emerged.

🛑 Europe should stop:

🔴 adding new layers of regulation;
🔴 creating new support instruments before improving those already available;
🔴 duplicating expensive R&D infrastructure—instead, start-ups should have simple, cross-border access to facilities across Europe;
🔴 treating entrepreneurs as potential wrongdoers by default.

🚀 Europe should:

💶 use public capital strategically to attract and crowd in private investment;
⚡ simplify and accelerate innovation-oriented public procurement;
📈 create prudent frameworks enabling pension funds and other institutional investors to invest in diversified venture-capital funds;
🔬 mobilise more patient capital, particularly for deep-tech companies moving from research to commercialisation and international scale.

🤝 But perhaps the strongest message was that trust is itself part of the infrastructure of a successful ecosystem.

Capital, talent, research facilities and support programmes are essential. Yet without trust between founders, investors, researchers, public institutions and policymakers, these individual elements do not function as a genuine ecosystem.

🙏 Thank you to our excellent panelists Danielius Stasiulis, Jorge Tiago Martins, Valentina Garonzi, prof. Ekaterini Chatzaki and Jovita Žėkaitė, PhD for sharing their experience and perspectives!

18/09/2026

Past, Present & Future: reflecting on the INNOVATE-EU journey 🚀

On 15 September, the INNOVATE-EU consortium gathered in Vilnius for our Steering Committee meeting, joined by our Project Officer, Délalie Johnson. As the project enters its final months, we reflected on lessons learned and how to build on the momentum created.

🔙 PAST | Lessons learned
🔹 Personalised support works best – startup needs differ by maturity and sector.
🔹 Supporting MedTech, GreenTech, Agrifood and ICT startups showed that while there is common ground, deeper support requires sector-specific expertise.
🔹 Combining online and in-person capacity building proved particularly effective.
🔹 Market and investor access remain among the most requested topics, while pitch training is valuable across TRL levels and different contexts.
🔹 Collaboration with our sister projects has been a key strength, with regular exchanges and joint activities, including the Startup Summit in Vilnius.
🔹 Stronger stakeholder, ecosystem and Advisory Board engagement remains important.

🍽️ PRESENT | Lunch! A good moment between reflecting on the past and planning the future. 😊

🔭 FUTURE | Building on the momentum
🔹 INNOVATE-EU concludes at the end of 2026, but the connections, knowledge and ecosystem created provide a strong foundation for future collaboration.
🔹 We see opportunities to continue through future EU calls, build on our Action Plan for policymakers, explore cascade funding and strengthen engagement with investors, customers and end users.
🔹 Continuity matters: startup support and ecosystem connections should not stop when a project ends.

And INNOVATE-EU is not finished yet!

We are developing a Roadmap for startups, while capacity-building support continues in October and November.

👉 Are you a startup in MedTech, GreenTech, Agrifood or ICT? There is still time to benefit from INNOVATE-EU support. Explore more at innovateeu.eu.

Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum | Cluster Imago-Mol | AgriFood Lithuania | Asociatia Clusterelor din Romania | Latvian Food Cluster | smart green | Cluster IDiA

14/09/2026

🚀 Reminder: Applications are open for the MedTech Funding Lab in Iași!

Are you a European healthcare or MedTech startup preparing to raise investment? Join us on 21 October for an intensive, hands-on day focused on making your business case and pitch investor-ready.

💰 Fundraising Toolkit with Rubik Hub
Work on valuation, cap tables, financial forecasting, investor targeting and data room preparation.
🎤 Pitching like a PRO with Henk Joos, Silver Arrow
Sharpen your investor story, Go-to-Market strategy, competitive positioning and roadmap — then put it into practice and get direct feedback.

Selected startups receive:
✈️ Up to €300 travel & accommodation support
🎟️ Opportunity for free access to the AI4-MED Conference
📍 Iași, Romania | 📅 21 October 2026
🎯 Only 15 startups will be selected
⏳ Apply by 9 October

👉 Apply here: https://lnkd.in/dc4g33MG

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14/09/2026

🚀 What’s on the agenda in Vilnius?

On 16 September, INNOVATE-EU, We-Rise Project and EPIC-X are bringing the European start-up ecosystem community together for a full day of discussion, collaboration and networking at “Behind every Start-up Success Story – How Ecosystems Shape Growth, Scale and Impact.”

Here’s a glimpse of what’s coming 👇
🔹 How INNOVATE-EU, EPIC-X and We-Rise Project support start-up ecosystems
A look at how European initiatives are helping create stronger conditions for start-ups to grow and scale.
🔹 We-Rise Project legacy blueprint
With Aleks Gruszkiewicz | Toro Ventures | We-Rise Project
🔹 Building Stronger Start-up Ecosystems: Innovation, Investment and Growth in Europe

A panel moderated by Daina Kleponė | Agrifood Lithuania, bringing together different perspectives from across the ecosystem:
• Danielius Stasiulis | European Innovation Council
• Jorge Martins | VTT, Finland
• Valentina Garonzi | Diamante Società Benefit, Italy
• Ekaterini Alexiou-Chatzaki | ABCureD, Greece

🔹 Policy Recommendation World Café
This is where participants become part of the programme. Together, we’ll explore the barriers that still hold start-ups back and develop recommendations for stronger European start-up ecosystems.

🔹 Closing Keynote with Monika Paule | CEO, Innovation Agency Lithuania
And, of course, there will be plenty of opportunities to meet, exchange ideas and network throughout the day.

📅 16 September 2026 | 09:30–16:00
📍 Tech Park, Vilnius
⭐ Official Side Event of Start-up Fair 2026

02/09/2026

🚀 From founder-led sales to your first 100 customers!

For many early-stage startups, the first customers, pilots, and sales conversations are still driven by the founders themselves.

But at some point, the challenge changes: 👉 How do you turn those first successes into a structured, scalable, and repeatable B2B sales process?

That’s exactly what our 🌱 B2B GreenTech Sales Masterclass is designed for.

The masterclass is especially relevant for GreenTech startups that are:

🔹 Building their first structured sales processes
🔹 Looking to professionalize founder-led sales
🔹 Turning pilots into paying customers 💰
🔹 Recently funded or preparing for their next growth phase 📈
🔹 Ready to learn from practical B2B sales experience in the GreenTech market 🌍

🎯 Our B2B Sales Masterclass: “The Road to Your First 100 Customers”

combines practical frameworks, real founder experience, and concrete sales learnings tailored specifically to early-stage GreenTech teams.

Because getting the first customers is one challenge.

Building a sales engine that can consistently win the next 100 is another. 🚀

💡 Know a founder or GreenTech startup this could be relevant for?

Tag them in the comments! 👇

smart green

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http://www.innovateeu.eu/

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