Bankability across the EU innovation finance landscape: what investors, innovators, and institutions really mean

There is plenty of private capital waiting to be unlock, but often projects find themselves in difficult situation to get commercial banks and investors onboard. Bankability is the name of the game. But what does "bankability" really mean in the context of EU innovation funding and large-scale industrial deployment — and why does it seem to change depending on who you ask?

This session explores the evolving and sometimes conflicting definitions of project bankability across major European funding instruments such as the Innovation Fund, InvestEU and more commercial-oriented projects. The EIC Accelerator, highlighting the need to develop alternatives to purely commercial approaches by EU Banks institutions. While each mechanism supports the scaling of innovative technologies, their underlying financial due diligence frameworks and risk appetites vary significantly. For project developers and industrial players, understanding these differences is critical to unlocking blended finance, securing investors, and bridging the gap between R&D and commercial deployment.