BoostUp! East 2025

Welcome to BoostUp! East 2025

Introduction

“BoostUp! East 2025” is a startup competition organised by EIT Manufacturing to identify and support promising startups. This year’s edition of BoostUp! East is open to startups from all EU27 and Horizon Europe-associated countries with solutions focusing on energy transition for the manufacturing industry.

Out of all eligible applicants, a jury of experts will select up to 10 finalists which will pitch their company in front of a jury composed by independent experts during the in-person event Manufacturing Day, in Vienna, on May 9th, 2025.

Finalist startups that will attend and pitch to the jury during the final event (up to 10 startups) will receive a “growth package” service support of up to two months delivered by the Business Creation team of EIT Manufacturing. 

The winning startups will receive a prize awards to support their European expansion strategy. The prize fund is €5,000, sponsored by the Vienna Business Agency.
 

Competition Topic Description

“BoostUp! East 2025” is focusing on the energy transition for the manufacturing industry. Therefore, in particular, submissions need to fit one of the following technology domains:

• Renewable energy generation & storage, including hydropower, solar and photovoltaic, on-shore wind, and green hydrogen.
• Energy storage, transport and distribution, including large-scale batteries, smart grids, electricity and gas networks, hydrogen transport, storage and distribution, smart metering, grid cybersecurity and resilience, and heating and cooling technologies.
• Energy sales and decentralised energy solutions, including: heat pumps and associated technologies, decentralised battery storage, small-scale hydrogen production and storage, and photovoltaic and solar for B2B customers.
• Energy management & internet of energy (IoE), including: demand response and demand side management, smart lighting, energy monitoring and auditing, and energy efficiency.
• Decarbonisation and circular solutions for the industry, including: carbon capture & storage (CCS), CO2 management & consulting, and recycling solutions for batteries, photovoltaic, wind and similar.
   

Key Dates and Milestones

Call opening: March 7th, 2025, 12:00 CET  

Call closing:  April 4th, 2025, 23:59 CET 

Announcement of the finalists for the pitching event: April 15th, 2025  

In-person pitching event: May 9th, 2025  

Communication of results: a jury deliberation meeting will take place directly after the pitch session. Right after the jury decision is taken, the results will be announced publicly during the award ceremony of the event.   

List of documents to be submitted

• The Application Form (from the Submission Management Platform SUBMITTABLE), with all mandatory fields properly filled in;
• Company pitch deck in Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx) or PDF (.pdf) format, in which the following details shall be clearly outlined: (i) target markets and description of the main(s) applicative use case(s) addressed by the company offerings and technologies; (ii) team and company organization; (iii) existing business traction; (iv) business development plans (incl. financial aspects) and go-to-European-market strategy;
• Company logo in high quality graphic format (this will be used for the call promotional campaign)
• Company registration certificate

Evaluation criteria
Evaluation criteria assessed by independent experts:

• EXCELLENCE: The startup presents an innovative solution with potential of the product or service to improve manufacturing
• IMPACT: The startup is addressed to specific target group/s and/or market sector/s and the solution demonstrates a competitive advantage over existing offers in the market
• IMPLEMENTATION: The team/founders have the expertise, and entrepreneurial drive
• STRATEGIC FIT: The startup contributes to the Competition areas

For further details and guidelines, please refer to the competition website.