News - March 26, 2019
Solar Impulse Foundation and EuroQuity join forces to support cleantech solutions
Written by Tristan Lebleu 2 min read
The Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label is now part of the EuroQuity network, enabling its solutions to access an exclusive business partner and investor matching platform.
There are numerous obstacles on a startups’ journey to success, from a company's market fit, to finding the right team, or overcoming legal challenges… But surely, one of the biggest challenges for tech entrepreneurs is the access to funding. According to a study by CB Insights, which analysed 101 startup failures post-mortem, “running out of cash” is the 2nd most frequent reason for startup failure. To survive, cash-intensive startups will first need to survive the infamous “Valley of Death” (which refers to the complex period of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup), and then go through rounds of investment (Seed, Series A, B, C, etc.).
To help startups through these complex steps, platforms such as EuroQuity have arisen to help companies find the right investors and advisors, and for investors and advisors to detect early-stage opportunities.
EuroQuity is a large network of startups, investors, and startup advisory companies (accelerators, incubators…). Created in 2008 by Bpifrance, a French public investment bank, this web platform aims to facilitate the search for funding and business opportunities for both entrepreneurs and investors. Entrepreneurs can showcase their startup profile, introduce their business, upload documents such as their pitch deck, and describe their needs in order to attract business partners and investors. The latter, which can be individuals, business angels or VCs, also need to create a profile to access the platform and look for opportunities.
Besides, EuroQuity has partnered with startup communities and labels, such as the Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label (see our official page), to attract more startups on the platform and to provide clear indications on a company's potential and value, reflected by their EQ Score.
"The more a company is present in a community, the more certification, likes and followers it has, the better its EQ Score becomes, and the more visibility it gets on the platform. It’s in the companies best interest to join communities and labels, and have the most complete profiles."
Marie Dollé, Business Development Manager at EuroQuity.
Once their profile is created, companies can either proactively look for investors, or describe their needs - for investment or business support - and wait for an investor to contact them. EuroQuity also often gets involved in the matchmaking process: apart from managing the community, the company organises monthly online live pitch sessions with the most promising startups. Since its inception, EuroQuity has an impressive track-record: they have brought together over 10’000 startups, 1650 investors and 1000 business support companies on its platform, and have facilitated over €500M of equity funding.
In its last monthly pitch session, K-Ryole (a Solar Impulse Efficient Solution developing a smart electric trailer for ‘last mile delivery’ in cities) made a great impression.
“It has been a great opportunity for us as we were contacted by business angels following our presentation”
Gilles Vallier, co-founder and CFO of K-Ryole.
As for the next presentations, XFP (whose Nitifilter solution was recently labelled by the Solar Impulse Foundation) will be pitching this week and Eco-Tech Ceram (founder of The EcoStock - a thermal storage solution) will be in April’s session.
If you are already part of EuroQuity, you can apply for the Solar Impulse Efficient Solution label (Discover the Solar Impulse Label on EuroQuity).
If you are already a Solar Impulse Efficient Solution and want to benefit from this opportunity, join the EuroQuity network by clicking the link below.
Written by Tristan Lebleu on March 26, 2019
