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 start-ups 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, start-ups 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.

Start-ups/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 start-up/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 start-up, 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 start-ups or SME’s are legally registered in an EU Member State or a Third Country associated to Horizon Europe,

There will be one winner (start-up/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).

The mentorship programme is customised to meet the needs of each start-up/SME. Within the initial application, start-ups/SMEs will already provide some basic information about their foreseen mentoring needs.

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 start-ups/SMEs will win an award package made up of mentoring, advice, hosting, and cash. The total value of each RAPTOR award package is up to 50.000 EUR.  

The package includes:

• Office space hosting of the awardees in the city provided location.  

The award package also includes mentoring and support over the development phase covering technical and business mentoring as well as marketing/promotion.  

The award package also includes a cash element of 35.000 EUR (excluding VAT). 

Once the winning start-up/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:  

• 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 start-up/SME that chooses the ‘options of equity purchase’ as the financial sustainability mechanism, may receive additional support of up to 35.000 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 start-up/SME. See further information in the Call Manual available on the call webpage.

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

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

Sales enablement can be supported during or after the commercial agreement negotiation. For more information please contact ias@eiturbanmobility.eu.