FAQ

A typical incubator and accelerator programmes offer some level of business training and/potential for investment.

RAPTOR awards a cash grant and provides mentorship, with the end outcome being a minimum viable product (MVP) demonstrated in-situ for a minimum of 1 week. 

The RAPTOR call is open to startups and SMEs registered as legal entities in either an European Union (EU) Member State or a Third Country Associated to Horizon Europe, Horizon Europe Associated State, in addition to the UK and Switzerland. 

Additionally, startups and SMEs should be registered as legal entities for not more than 10 years from the official closing date of the call.

The RAPTOR call is addressed to single legal entities (eg. is a mono-beneficiary scheme) and, consequently, there is no need to develop a consortium with additional entities.

Startups/SMEs should not have previously received funding from EIT Urban Mobility S.L for the same product development.

No, you can be from and live anywhere, as long as your startup/SME is based in a European Union (EU) Member State or a Third Country Associated to Horizon Europe. 

Yes, as long as you have plans to make some upgrades or modifications to your existing solution during the MVP development period and you participate fully in the mentoring and in situ-testing.

If you are an early-stage startup, you may be interested in EIT Urban Mobility’s Accelerator.  

Additionally, feel free to contact us at raptor@eiturbanmobility.eu and we will send you a reminder when any new RAPTOR Call is launched!

Applications are accepted if startups or SME’s are legally registered in an EU Member State or a Third Country associated to Horizon Europe,

There will be one winner (startup/SME) per challenge. 

Communication will be by email to the main contact given in the application platform.

The evaluation of applications is conducted in two phases:
First Phase – Quality Evaluation: The first phase will be a quality evaluation carried out by three external expert evaluators and one city representative, and will weight 80% of the total scoring of the project proposal.

The 3 evaluation criteria are excellence, implementation and impact.

The top three applications of each challenge (ranked in order of score) will be invited to the second round.

Second Phase – Panel Hearing: The second phase will consist of a panel hearing, assessed by one external expert evaluator, one city representative, and one EIT UM business specialist, and will weight the 20% of the total scoring of the project
proposal.

One winner will be selected for each challenge.

More information on the evaluation and selection process is available in the Call Manual availabe on the call webpage.

Yes, you may propose a solution to multiple challenges and/or multiple solutions to one specific challenge. However, no applicant may be awarded for more than one RAPTOR project. 

The applicant of a rejected proposal who disagrees with the decision may appeal only in the event where Quality Evaluation results comment is in clear contradiction with the information provided in the proposal. In this case, the applicant will have 5 calendar days after receipt of the final evaluation results to submit an appeal to the Evaluation (see document Appeal procedure published on the call webpage).

No, you can work from anywhere, as long as you attend virtual check-in meetings and online mentoring sessions. Note that for the in-situ demonstration of your solution, you will need to be present in the RAPTOR challenge city.

EIT Urban Mobility S.L may withdraw all or part of the prize awarded if the terms and conditions contained in these rules are violated, or in the event of any significant deviation from the stated content and objectives for the responder’s proposal. A basis for withdrawal of part of the award would be: if progress to MVP development ceased, or if an MVP was not provided for the partner by the specified date. However, underperformance issues of an MVP in-situ would not be grounds for withdrawal of the prize in and of itself.

RAPTOR is designed to be as agile as possible and thus there is a simple monitoring process as explained in the Competition Terms.

The winning startups/SMEs will win an award package, advice, hosting, and cash.

The call provides a fixed lump sum of €59,500 per selected project, of which €40,000 (67.5% of the project budget) will be refunded as EIT funding and €19,500 (32.5% of the project budget) is co-funded by the selected start-up.

The funds for the €19,500 can be provided directly from the selected start-up/SME or from a third party (e.g. alternative funding program).

Once the winning startup/SMEs are selected, a negotiation phase will begin to propose a suitable financial sustainability mechanism (FSM) that provides a Return on Investment (ROI) for EIT Urban Mobility. This is often done via:  

• Fixed fee & success fee mechanism with our Innovation Advisory Services team
• Revenue share

• Fee per transaction
• Options of equity purchase might be also available following an additional evaluation. See details of the additional evaluation in the Call Manual available on the call webpage.

Each selected startup/SME that chooses the ‘options of equity purchase’ as the financial sustainability mechanism, may receive additional support of up to 59,500 euro. The overall purpose of the additional sub-grant is to provide financial support to foster the hiring, growth, product development, R&D, legal and marketing development of the selected startup/SME. See further information in the Call Manual available on the call webpage.

It is mandatory for all winning startups/SMEs to sign a Commercial Agreement with EIT Urban Mobility before the end of the project.

Note: Startups and SMEs already part of EIT Urban Mobility equity portfolio are only eligible to the equity purchase option.

Our Innovation Advisory Service can be supported during or after the commercial agreement negotiation. For more information please contact ias@eiturbanmobility.eu.

Costs of subcontracting are eligible, but as a rule of thumb should be no more than approximately 15% of the total budget, except in cases where this is necessary and duly justified.