About Us | MPowerBIO

About

MPowerBIO empowers Clusters to bring SMEs across the financial valley of death

Many SMEs experience that even though they have a good idea or a good product, they cannot get an investor. They need to be able to pitch their idea perfectly, have a strong business plan, a clear strategy, a well-defined customer base, etc. to attract investors.

European clusters need to be better suited to help small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) overcome the valley of death i.e. the difficult task of finding sufficient investment to get from idea to business. This is the main focus of the MPowerBIO project.

In the MPowerBIO project 10 training the trainers’ events will be arranged for a total of 90 clusters across the bioeconomy, covering most of Europe. The events are set up to help clusters understand how SMEs can obtain capital and grow.

Our goals and objectives

10 training the trainers events

The events are set up to help clusters to be better equipped to help SMEs overcome the challenge of finding sufficient investment
90 clusters

The project will engage and train 90 SME clusters within the bio-based industry across Europe
250 SMEs

The SMEs will be screened and supported over the project to enhance their investment readiness level
10 regional competitions

SMEs will present high-quality bio-based industry projects to investors at regional competitions
2 European final pitching events

The best SME projects will be invited to pitch at one of the annual European final events

How will we reach the goals?

01 Identify investment challenges

The MPowerBIO project will obtain feedback from clusters, SMEs and investors on the concrete challenges they have regarding investments. From these experiences, an online platform will be set up containing digital tools for evaluating investment readiness.
02 Train clusters and support SMEs

Online training modules and regional trainers’ events will be organised to build the capacity of clusters to train their SME members and give them the best possibilities for preparing and presenting high quality projects to investors.
03 Pitching in front of investors

The best SME projects from these events will be selected by investors, and invited to one of two European finals, which are based on the European Bioeconomy Venture Forum model, run by several of the consortium members. At the final, the selected companies will present their ideas to a panel of investors and experts from large organisations and venture funds in Europe, with the aim of attracting capital to grow and develop their business.

A total of 72 high-quality, screened and investment-ready SME are expected to pitch at the two final events. The project will screen and support 250 SMEs towards this goal.

Partners

Advisory board

Associated clusters