EIT Food Fast Track to Market 2025
Discover a unique opportunity to accelerate the market launch of your food innovation product or service and boost its commercial success
Your company is eligible to apply for the EIT Food Fast Track to Market if you:
- Be a legally incorporated entity in one of the EU or Horizon Europe eligible countries for a minimum of 12 months of business activity.
- Have a technology, product, service, or solution aligned to one or more of EIT Food’s Missions.
- Be classified as a SMALL sized company as defined in the EU recommendation 2003/361 (less than 49 employees and less than 10 million in turnover or balance sheet).
- Have a minimum of 3 full-time employees (3 FTEs) or 3 full-time employee equivalents.
We ask that applicants have a clear case for a project lasting no longer than 12 months that can significantly accelerate their startup/SME’s commercial success, and that the proposed project must be able to have an immediate impact by bringing their products or services to the market.
Applicants already affiliated with EIT Food (e.g., Food Accelerator Network and Rising Food Stars) are also welcome to apply, provided they fulfil the eligibility criteria.
How do I apply to Fast Track to Market?
If you fit the above eligibility criteria, we encourage you to fill out an application form!
Applications must be completed and submitted by the application deadline of 6 May 2025 – 12.00 noon CET. It must be submitted via the Salesforce application portal, which requires previous registration before submission. Please allow sufficient time prior to submitting your application to register for an EIT Food Salesforce account. Please find the application form linked here.
Within the application form, you will be asked to submit the following:
- A fully-written company business plan and presentation (i.e., “pitch deck”)
- Reports attesting to your company’s financial statements and health
- A project plan outlining the activities to achieve next sales milestones
- A budget plan outlining the expected costs for the proposed project scope, in line with Horizon Europe regulations
Application Webinar
We will be hosting an application webinar for prospective applicants of the programme. The webinar will cover everything you need to know to apply, including eligibility and evaluation criteria, important documents you'll need, how to fill out a proposal on Salesforce, and projecting your financing via the Revenue-based Financing (RBF) mechanism.
The webinar will take place on Wednesday 16 April at 11 a.m. Register for the webinar here.
How does the Fast Track to Market funding work?
Your company can apply for up to EUR 300 000 in funding.
Your startup or SME will be the sole funding beneficiary of the funded project and must allocate the funding to eligible costs between the contract signature date for a maximum duration of 12 months following the project start date.
Revenue-based financing mechanism
Selected Fast Track to Market startups/SMEs will need to comply with EIT Food’s Revenue Based Financing Agreement, which consists of a repayment based on the company’s revenue. Repayment is not dependent on the sales of the foreseen marketed innovation.
The Revenue-Based Financing Agreement (i.e., RBF) allows us to reinvest in our community. Selected participants will begin their revenue-share payments directly after the anticipated completion date, with each payment amount equalling a negotiated percentage of the company’s top-line revenues of the 6 preceding months. These reward payments will be executed every month, based on the calculation of revenues taking place every 6 months. The RBF will be in effect for a period of between 1 to 5 years. Participants will continue with their reward payments until a Maximum Threshold is reached, which increases for each year that the RBF is in place. The Maximum Threshold is equal to the total project award plus a premium of 7,50 per cent per year in which the RBF is still in place. There are no penalties should participants choose to pay an amount higher than the negotiated percentage of their company’s top-line revenues. Therefore, companies have the ability to reduce their obligation by increasing the size of their reward payments earlier.
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