Home Funding PhotonHub Europe raised €19 million to strengthen SME growth

PhotonHub Europe raised €19 million to strengthen SME growth

PhotonHub Europe raised €19 million to strengthen SME growth
PhotonHub Europe raised €19 million to strengthen SME growth

PhotonHub Europe, a new digital innovation hub based in Vrije Universiteit Brussel in the Photonics field, has raised €19 million funding from European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme on 21st October 2020. 

PhotonHub Europe says their aim is to ensure the strength of Europe on the global technology stage, helping the small, medium sized and mid-market European companies to become competitive digital enterprises through smarter and rapid deployment of technologies based on Photonics. They predict to generate 1,000 plus new tech based job opportunities and around €1 billion in venture capital and new revenue by 2025. 

The planning for the future

The Photonics organization will bring 53 ‘leading competence centers’ across Europe together as a one-stop destination for training, advice and shopping technology about photonics. The services for new Photonic enterprises will include an upskilling program, ‘test before invest’ and further support for finding investment if they adapt the technology. The upskilling program and training will cover both, application specific and technology based learning on photonics through lab-based training and lecture based tutorials. 

The newly established Photonics hub is managed by Brussels Photonics Team (B-Phot). They already have 500 top European experts ready to advise on any niche. These experts are available to advise on anything like prototyping, designing, intellectual property laws, or manufacturing.  All of these activities won’t be centered in Brussels; PhotonHub will also associate with innovation labs and universities in 18 European regions which they call ‘lighthouse regions’. It is also so that the best expertise and practices can be swiftly shared on the local stage. 

The ‘science and technology of light’-Photonics is increasing its impact on digital products. And PhotonHub can lower the obstacles for SMEs to start scaling and experimenting their use in the field. PhotonHub expects to deliver its impact on two essential levels, firstly on competitiveness and digitization of SMEs (mainly European) and secondly to measure its impact on the wider ecosystem of European Photonics Hub. 

The organization will commence its operations in early 2021 and in the first four years of operation, it expects to have expert one-to-one discussions with a minimum of 8,000 companies in which 90% will be small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), with 6000 trainings, 250 enterprises receiving cross-country support and 280 companies to be paired with investors for supporting their TRL (Technology Readiness Level). Once the operations are started in 2021, the PhotonHub website will be open for continuous calls for enterprises to apply for its services. And this is the action plan behind their aim of creating 1,000 new jobs and expected new revenues and venture capital raise. 

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