Cédric Spaas and Arspectra are developing special glasses that allow surgeons removing a tumour to see with the utmost precision what they have to do. Photo: Julian Pierrot/Maison Moderne/Archives

Cédric Spaas and Arspectra are developing special glasses that allow surgeons removing a tumour to see with the utmost precision what they have to do. Photo: Julian Pierrot/Maison Moderne/Archives

Luxinnovation, which is active in helping startups in their search for European funding, has announced that two local startups, Arspectra and Circu Li-ion, and AkknaTek, a German startup based in Luxembourg, have been selected by the European Innovation Council. The prize: millions of euros.

One thousand startups and SMEs applied for the last Accelerator 2022 class, 240 were auditioned by experts, 78 were finally supported with €470m. This includes two Luxembourg startups, Arspectra and Circu Li-ion, and a German start-up, AkknaTek, which opened a branch in Luxembourg and was also advised by Luxinnovation. Since the start of this European programme in March 2021, competition has been fierce. Among the many forms of support that the innovation agency can provide, Luxinnovation has focused on access to European funding.

The Accelerator of the European Innovation Council (EIC) offers startups and SMEs grants of up to €2.5m, combined with equity investments via the EIC fund of up to €15m. In addition to financial support, all projects benefit from a range of business acceleration services that provide access to leading expertise, companies, investors and ecosystem players.

For even cleaner batteries

The EIC said that its contribution to is almost €5.5m. The startup is developing a solution for the automated disassembly and diagnosis of batteries and recovers up to 90% of battery cells. It is thus a useful second life application, which reduces the CO2 emissions of the battery by 48% (max. 50%), compared to the life cycle of a traditional battery. It has applied for “blended funding” from the EIC, which includes a grant component as well as investment provided in the form of equity or quasi-equity, such as a convertible loan.

“The equity funding will provide us with an excellent basis to launch a larger funding round with private investors,” said Circu Li-ion CEO Antoine Welter.

Valuable glasses

will be supported to the tune of nearly €2.5m, said the EIC. It will continue the development of its glasses specially developed for surgeons removing tumours and which allow them to see exactly what they have to do. “We already have several devices on the market and we are now taking the technology to the next level where surgeons can use the glasses to see exactly where they need to intervene and operate on patients. However, this requires very large investments and clinical trials with hundreds of patients,” explained Arspectra CEO Cédric Spaas, quoted by Luxinnovation. The new funding will allow the startup to carry out technical, usability and clinical pilot validation of its upcoming and latest end-user navigation solution for advanced surgical applications.

Better cataract surgery

Luxinnovation also advised a third start-up as part of the Fit4Start programme: the developer of innovative ophthalmic solutions , which applied via its German parent company but opened a subsidiary in Luxembourg last July. It will receive around €6.3m, said the EIC.

“I am convinced that the EIC’s recognition of the first Luxembourg pioneers will pave the way for other companies to win EIC Accelerator grants in the future,” commented Luxinnovation CEO .

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.