After four weeks of intensive training, strategic refinement, and rigorous evaluation, the Open Horizons project is proud to announce the five startups selected to move forward into the 5-month Piloting Phase.
These teams demonstrated exceptional commitment, clarity, and readiness to co-develop real Proof-of-Concept (PoC) projects with leading European corporates.
Open Horizons is hosting a dedicated Info Day to help women-led deep-tech and digital startups navigate the application process for Open Call #2, offering up to €55,000 in equity-free funding, hands-on mentoring, and the opportunity to co-design pilots with major European corporates.
📅 4 December 2025
⏰ 10:00–11:00 CET
🌐 Online
If you are a woman founder developing an innovative digital or deep-tech solution, this session is designed to give you all the clarity you need before submitting your application.
What you will learn
Participants will receive a guided walkthrough of the entire Open Call process, including:
How Open Call #2 works and what it offers
Eligibility criteria – who can apply and what we’re looking for
Evaluation and selection – how proposals are assessed
After selection – contract signature, legal checks, and next steps
How to apply – a step-by-step explanation of the submission process
Where to find help and support at any time
The Info Day is free and open to all interested applicants.
It has been designed to make the application journey simple, transparent, and accessible—especially for founders applying for an EU-funded programme for the first time.
🔗 Register here: https://shorturl.at/n1EK7
Get your questions answered and prepare to submit your proposal with confidence.
20 November 2025, European Union: Open Horizons, a Horizon Europe funded initiative designed to elevate women-led deep tech startups, has officially opened its Second Open Call. It offers up to €55,000 in equity-free funding, strategic mentoring, and the chance to co-develop pilot projects with leading European corporates. Applications are open from 20 November 2025 to 29 January 2026.
The startup world never rests. There is always a reason to talk, get inspired or… get funded.
This month, deeptech founders, investors, and entrepreneurs will gather to share ideas, pitch solutions, and shape the future of technology, sustainability and emerging challenges. If you’re working on a startup or exploring funding opportunities, these events are the place to connect, learn, and grow.
Under the EU funded Open Horizons initiative, seven visionary female-led startups have been selected to pioneer breakthrough solutions for sustainability, digitalization, and social inclusion. Each startup is about to tackle a key challenge defined in the Open Call 1 by the project’s corporate partners — from smart grids and circular economy to AI-driven healthcare and smart living. All of them showcasing how early-stage innovation can accelerate Europe’s twin green and digital transitions.
The Inception Phase is the essence of the Open Horizons journey. Why? Years of high-level entrepreneurial experience are distilled into a month of high-impact training.
This phase enables selected ideas to take shape and founders to turn ambition into strategy. Over just a few intensive weeks, startups receive concentrated knowledge from our mentors and the project partner InnovX. Get to know the people behind the process. Meet the mentors whose distilled experience and insights form the key ingredients for a successful preparation to pilot their structured ideas.
The recipe for a plan ready to scale up
The Open Horizons’ mentors bring together an exceptional mix of backgrounds: from global tech leaders at Microsoft to venture investors, legal experts, corporate executives, and founders. All of them have built and scaled their own companies.
Their combined expertise spans every corner of the innovation ecosystem – from artificial intelligence, cloud solutions, and finance, to marketing, design thinking, and intellectual property.
Throughout the Inception Phase, they guide startups in understanding both the mechanics and the mindset required to transform a concept into a market-ready solution.
Corporate partners also step in to provide feedback grounded in real operational needs, ensuring every idea is tested against practical, business-driven perspectives.
Together, these interactions ensure that the programme delivers the most valuable outcome of all: clarity.
Key steps and guidance of the inception programme
Business Model Canvas workshops
Before growing, you need to know who you are and what you can do. The Business Model Canvas (BMC) is a tool that helps startups define who they are, who they serve, and how they create value.
Maria-Luiza Jipescu, Design Thinking and Innovation Facilitator, will lead these sessions with Mădălina Ciinaru, Nicu Iancu, and Bodó György. They are bringing expertise in strategic design, partnership building, and digital transformation.
As the programme advances, a broader circle of mentors – Steliana Moraru, Liviu Munteanu, Ana Bobircă, Bogdan Năforniță, Melinda Muresan, Daniel Dumitrescu, Raluca Nicolescu, Aimen Aldahash, Robert Pufan, Madalina Dobre, Delia Necula, Adina Saniuta, Dorina Torje, Sergiu Pop, Carmen Dibuș, Sonia Fedorovici, Diana Dumitrescu and Suleiman Arabiat – will join us to help refine each startup’s approach. Their feedback sessions will resemble a collaborative studio, where investors, entrepreneurs, and innovators will combine perspectives to ensure every business model will be sound and scalable.
Co-Design workshops for pilot planning
These sessions, co-led by InnovX and Open Horizons corporate partners, focus on turning ideas into actionable pilot plans.
Startups will work hand-in-hand with corporate innovation teams to tailor their solutions to real-world operational contexts. Moreover, they will identify measurable outcomes, and set up frameworks for collaboration. This is learning applied at its best – pragmatic, goal-oriented, and driven by dialogue.
Proof of Concept (PoC) legal readiness workshop
Legal clarity is essential to kick off on a solid ground. Bogdan Coraci, Legal and IP expert, guided founders through the essentials of collaboration frameworks: Non-Disclosure Agreements, Intellectual Property rights, confidentiality agreements, and the evolution from Proof-of-Concept to licensing.
His session provides not just legal theory but negotiation practice, helping teams recognize each party’s red lines and build balanced, trust-based partnerships.
Microsoft Power Lab
Innovation thrives with technology thanks to the Microsoft Power Lab. It will showcase how cutting-edge tools can accelerate growth and ensure security at scale.
Aimen Aldahash will illustrate Microsoft’s support journey for startups — from pre-seed Azure credits to global go-to-market partnerships.
Ovidiu Pismac, Senior Security Cloud Solution Architect, will share insights on data protection, cybersecurity, and compliance in the age of AI.
Robert Pufan, Senior Partner Solutions Architect for AI Business Solutions, will introduce Microsoft 365 Copilot as a catalyst for smarter, safer workflows.
Sergiu Pop, EMEA Data & AI Specialist, will follow with a deep dive into the new “agentic AI” paradigm, showing how data and automation empower innovation.
Individual reviews and the final rehearsal
The final stretch of the Inception Phase is where everything comes together. Startups enter one-to-one review sessions with InnovX mentors and corporate partners, validating Business Model Canvases and Proof-of-Concept plans before delivery.
Then comes the final evaluation seen through two complementary lenses:
Mentors act as directors, ensuring the storyline is coherent, strategic, and compelling.
Corporate representatives take the role of critics, assessing feasibility, alignment, and real-world impact.
It’s the last acting rehearsal before the show. Here, every detail is refined, every performance perfected, and every team ready to take the stage for pilot implementation.
Looking ahead: New horizons and pilots
As the selected startups move toward their pilots, they carry with them the insights, discipline, and inspiration distilled from Europe’s most experienced innovators. They create a collective compass guiding them through the open horizons and the Pilot Phase ahead.
Follow us to learn how Piloting looks like in our programme.
As a EU-funded project, Open Horizons is well connected to a vibrant network of initiatives shaping a more inclusive and innovative deeptech landscape across Europe. After exploring Women TechEU, EmpoWomen, and WEgate in our first article, we are happy to introduce you to new projects contributing to the same mission: empowering women entrepreneurs and strengthening innovation ecosystems across Europe.
The word “inception” comes from the Latin “inceptio”, meaning a beginning, an undertaking. It signals the starting point of something meaningful. For Open Horizons, the Inception Phase marks the real beginning of the journey for selected startups: when applications evolve into structured pilot plans.
The first open call of Open Horizons was a success. We received 256 applications. This is just the first step of a short but intense journey, where women-led tech startups will walk side by side leading corporates and mentors. The common destination: scaling up real-world solutions to boost innovation in Europe.
The countdown is on: the first Open Horizons Open Call closes on 21 August 2025 at 17:00 CEST.
Before submitting, many startups have reached out with similar questions. We collected them to help you avoid common mistakes, to fully focus on delivering a great application on time.