Raising capital: new Business Support Programme designed to support SMEs and scale-ups in attracting capital

21 April 2021

Access to venture capital and the right competencies are a necessity for scaling innovative startups. This also applies in the agri-food sector, where entrepreneurial companies experience that it can be a challenge to raise the necessary capital.

According to a report made by DigitalFoodLab, which sheds light on how much capital has been invested in the European FoodTech ecosystem in the previous six years, Denmark is lagging behind compared to other Nordic countries.

To support SMEs in attracting capital, Food & Bio Cluster Denmark has a strategic focus on improving access to risk capital and competencies. According to Claus Mortensen, Business Development Manager at Food & Bio Cluster Denmark, soft funding cannot stand alone, but is a good supplement. He says that development and commercial experience from investors plays an important role in achieving success as well.

- In an ecosystem with over 2300 organizations in our network, it is clear that we as a cluster organization play a central role by acting as a matchmaker between investors and entrepreneurs, Claus explains.

- For the past nine years, we have conducted an annual international investor summit and provided sparring to entrepreneurs seeking capital. With this venture, we intensify this effort and offer, among other things, access to business angels via partnerships and contacts to Danish and foreign funds and accelerators. In addition, we also offer a Business Support Programme with international partners, where capital-seeking entrepreneurs can be equipped to seek capital, Claus explains.

A tailored programme

The programme is tailored to SMEs and startups in the bioeconomy sector within the framework of the MPowerBIO project, where more than 250 companies will be offered sparring from capital experts.
Coaching and mentoring sessions, participation in workshops, networking and access to investors are some of the free services included in the program.

The bio-resource companies with the best projects will get a chance to present their business ideas to a panel of investors, experts from large organizations and investment funds in a European forum, with the aim of attracting capital to grow and develop their businesses.

Interested entrepreneurs are encouraged to contact Claus Mortensen, cm@foodbiocluster.dk for access to sparring and investors.

About the project

MPowerBIO (eM-POWERing SME Clusters to help SMEs to overcome the valley of death) has a budget of €1.5 mio., a duration of 30 months from 1 May 2020 and has received funding from the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s  Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 887501.

The 10 international project partners are: Agro Business Park (DK) (lead partner), Tech Tour Global (BG), Cluster Industrielle Biotechnologie 2021 E.V (DE), Fundacion Corporacion Technologica de Andalucia (ES), Consorzio Italbiotec (IT), Foodscale Hub Entrepreneurship and Innovation Association (RS), EIT Food (BE), Irish Bioeconomy Foundation (IR), Q-Plan International Advisors PC (GR), Sustainable Innovations Europe SL.(ES). 

Learn more about the project here: www.mpowerbio.eu

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