A service tool to support innovative start-ups in aligning their stage of development with the most suitable funding instruments has been designed, while the Business Angels concept has been promoted to contribute to the creation of a sustainable startup ecosystem in the Greek region of Central Macedonia.
An online platform was designed, to provide information and guidance to startups, in finding the most appropriate financial instrument according to their stage of development. The configuration plan of such a tool has already been communicated with the Region of Central Macedonia about the potential of integrating it into the service mix portfolio provided by the One-Stop-Liaison-Office, to support innovation ecosystem and start-ups. Furthermore, the potential of creating a community of angel investors in the region has started to be discussed and explored.
The Equity investment for Innovation - TechnoBIT Venture and Beskid Technology Accelerator, presented by our Polish partner ARRSA, provided the methodology on how to offer funding and non-financial and advisory support to SMEs. Regarding Business Angels, CCDR Lisboa in Portugal and Venture Capital Investments & Business Angels in Slovenia have shown us the importance of co-investment, since collaborations are critical in early-stage funding and the crucial role of a Business Angel as a front runner.
Key Learnings from the Innova-FI project:
1. INTERREG EUROPE Programme is all about interregional learning. Innova-FI project gave us the opportunity to go deeper into the other partner regions’ practices, which we profoundly studied and exploited while designing our own interventions.
2. The pandemic – despite its constraints – made possible to expand the local stakeholder group to a national one, by bringing together key actors and policy makers from both national bodies, as well as regional ones, located inside and outside our region.
3. The project favoured the so much beneficial interaction with the regional ecosystem and the actual synergizing with other stakeholders.
