EUACCDaily Pulse #06 · 17 Jun 2026
The EIC will take direct equity in defence start-ups for the first time: a EUR100m STEP Scale Up Defence call, up to EUR30m a company, opening 30 June. Public money is crossing a line it never crossed before.
🛡️FUNDING
Brussels crosses the defence line
On 17 June the European Innovation Council opened to defence and dual-use technologies, and with it a EUR100 million STEP Scale Up Defence call offering up to EUR30 million in direct equity per company. It is, in the Commission's own words, the first time any EU funding programme will ever invest direct equity in defence companies.
The defence call sits inside a wider EUR300 million STEP Scale Up round for strategic deep tech. Applications open on 30 June and close on 28 October 2026, with results expected in early 2027. Eligible: start-ups and SMEs from EU member states, Horizon-associated countries and Ukraine.
🎯WHY IT MATTERS
Patient public capital, now armed
The EIC is built to take risks private investors will not, and defence-tech founders have long hit an ESG and dual-use wall with conventional VCs. A public co-investor writing EUR10 to EUR30 million equity cheques into the sector changes who is willing to anchor a round.
The mechanics matter. The EIC wants to co-invest in rounds of EUR50 to EUR150 million or more, expecting the total raise to run three to five times its own cheque. So this is scale-up money, not seed: line up your private leads first, then design the EIC in as the strategic anchor that crowds them in.
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