How it works

1. Apply

Submit your startup’s proposal via our application portal [put hyperlink to section 3.2 Open calls registrations]. We’re looking for bold women-led teams solving real challenges with deep tech or digital innovation that are:

  • Based in the EU or Horizon Europe-associated countries;
  • Working in deeptech or digital sectors (AI, blockchain, IoT, greentech etc.);
  • Have at least one female founder/CEO/CTO with minimum of 25 % ownership;
  • Ambitious to grow, scale, and make a market-level impact.

2. Get Selected

Each call will fund a cohort of startups at the inception stage — they’ll receive €10,000 in equity-free funding to develop their pilot idea further, prepare materials, and engage with potential corporate partners.

How our five-step evaluation process is designed for fairness, quality, and corporate-fit:

  1. Eligibility check
  2. Red-flag filtering
    (Is a startup ready to grow?)
  3. Expert review
    (Top 50 proposals are scored remotely.)
  4. Score calibration
    (To ensure fairness across reviewers.)
  5. Final interviews with corporate partners to select pilots.

3. Piloting Phase

From the inception cohort, the top-performing startups will be selected to move forward with a corporate-backed pilot. These startups can receive an additional €45,000 to implement a real-world pilot in collaboration with one of our corporate partners.

Selected pilot-stage startups will:

  • Join a virtual onboarding and training with INNOVX.
  • Co-design a pilot with their matched corporate.
  • Execute the pilot and measure KPIs  (integration, feedback, ROI ).
  • Receive mentoring, EU-level visibility, and support for follow-on funding

Learn how we helped 100 top brands gain success