KIC InnoEnergy’s value proposition for Entrepreneurs is the KIC InnoEnergy Highway™, where the entrepreneur can find the services he/she needs to transform his/her idea or venture into a successful business. We work actively, with the entrepreneur, in 4 dimensions, that are a must for success:

• Technology (with at least the following steps): due diligence, mapping vs. competing products/services, positioning, patenting (if necessary) proof of concept with customer/industry, piloting, industrialization

• Market (with at least the following steps): market assessment, market positioning, business case, business plan

• Team (with at least the following steps): team assessment,  training, team completion, legal constitution (of start-up or spin-off)

• Finance: seed money, VC rounds (brokerage)

After the first due diligences in the three first dimensions (technology, market and team), if successful, KIC InnoEnergy assigns a Business Coach to the entrepreneur and jointly decides the roadmap (subset of services of each dimension) that will bring the entrepreneur to become a businessman or woman. KIC InnoEnergy Highway™ is the one stop shop.

All those services are delivered through KIC InnoEnergy's unequal network of partners. The entrepreneur engages with KIC InnoEnergy that invests in all those services, and in return asks for an equity participation in the future start-up.

Compared to any other incubator of the European landscape, KIC InnoEnergy Highway™ offers 4 differential assets, at least, on top of the traditional ones:

• European coverage: It is one single incubator with six entry points (one per CC). No matter if the entrepreneur has an idea in renewables or in clean coal, he can enter the incubator by any of the 6 CCs and can benefit from the services of the total network.

• Specialized in Energy: KIC InnoEnergy Highway™ is only about the six energy thematic fields where we are specialized in. That specialization allows us to offer energy related technology due diligences, labs, POCs, prototypes and integrations that are second to none.

• Commitment to find the first customer: KIC InnoEnergy Highway™ commits, when signing with the entrepreneur, that we will bring the first customer. And we all know that it is a customer that legitimizes an invention, a product or a service.

• Integral approach: KIC InnoEnergy Highway™ in itself is a process where we integrate and encompass the 4 dimensions that we enhance and improve, from the idea to the start-up (the technology, the market, the team and the finance). All are managed at unison because only all four together are the threshold for success.