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Alice & Bob and EnduroSat in the new EIC STEP Scale Up cohort

By French Tech Sofia, Wilfried DURAND

European scale-up funding becomes concrete when a French quantum company and a Bulgarian space company appear in the same official cohort. That is the key signal in the latest EIC STEP Scale Up announcement: Alice & Bob and EnduroSat are part of a new group of eight companies selected for potential EIC Fund investment, placing France and Bulgaria inside the same EU deep-tech financing story.

On April 27, 2026, the European Commission announced the selection through the European Innovation Council framework. The eight companies may receive between EUR10 million and EUR30 million each, for a combined potential equity package of EUR146.5 million. The process now moves through due diligence and final investment decisions, which gives the announcement both substance and a clear next step.

• Table of Content
• What changed in this EIC STEP Scale Up round
• What the cohort says about Europe’s deep-tech capital ladder
• What this means for Sofia, France and the wider European network
• Signals for founders, investors and ecosystem partners

What changed in this EIC STEP Scale Up round

The announcement matters because it turns a broad European ambition into a visible shortlist. The numbers show a selective process and a larger-ticket instrument aimed at companies already operating at a serious level of technical and commercial maturity.

• Eight companies were selected for potential EIC Fund investment under STEP Scale Up.
• Each company may receive EUR10 million to EUR30 million.
• The combined potential equity allocation reaches EUR146.5 million.
• 44 proposals were submitted and 28 companies were interviewed.
• 18 additional companies received the STEP Seal.
• The programme has a EUR300 million budget for 2026 across three quarterly batches.

The selected cohort spans several parts of Europe: Alice & Bob from France, EnduroSat from Bulgaria, Aignostics and Reverion from Germany, Payload Aerospace from Spain, Quantware from the Netherlands, Luabio from Denmark, and Greenland Resources from Greenland.

For French Tech Sofia readers, two names carry special weight. Alice & Bob brings a clear French deep-tech angle through quantum. EnduroSat brings a Bulgarian angle with strong Sofia relevance through space. Seeing both companies in the same official EU selection gives the story a practical cross-border dimension: two very different frontier-tech paths are moving through the same European financing channel.

That shared presence matters because it connects founders, operators, investors and institutions across the France-Bulgaria ecosystem. It offers a concrete example of how European programmes can surface companies from different national ecosystems in one investment pipeline, with enough scale to influence partnerships, investor attention and ecosystem visibility.

What the cohort says about Europe’s deep-tech capital ladder

STEP Scale Up is designed for a phase of company building that often requires larger amounts of patient capital. The size of the potential tickets gives this round a distinct profile inside the European funding landscape. For ambitious science-led companies, the message is clear: EU-backed growth capital is becoming more structured, more visible and easier to track.

The presence of the STEP Seal also matters. Alongside the eight companies selected for potential investment, 18 more received a recognised marker of quality inside the same process. For founders, that creates a wider field of signal. For investors and ecosystem partners, it creates a broader map of companies that have already passed through demanding evaluation.

What this means for Sofia, France and the wider European network

The France-Bulgaria angle is especially strong here because it sits inside a European policy instrument with real scale. Alice & Bob and EnduroSat aren’t connected by geography or sector alone. They are connected by an EU selection process that puts both companies in front of the same institutional capital mechanism.

For Sofia, the inclusion of EnduroSat reinforces Bulgaria’s visibility in strategic technologies. For France, Alice & Bob’s presence shows how French deep-tech companies continue to matter in the European scale-up conversation. For French Tech Sofia, that combination is exactly where the ecosystem conversation becomes useful: it links local relevance, cross-border opportunity and a shared European framework.

Signals for founders, investors and ecosystem partners

• Founders: Europe’s public scale-up instruments are showing larger equity ranges, with a clear route from evaluation to potential investment.
• Investors: The cohort offers a useful shortlist of companies already assessed within a high-visibility EU process.
• Operators and ecosystem builders: The announcement creates a practical bridge between national ecosystems, public institutions and strategic sectors such as quantum and space.
• Public actors and partners: The STEP Scale Up format shows how European programmes can align industrial policy, innovation policy and company financing in one mechanism.

For French Tech Sofia, this is the kind of European news worth following over time. It brings France and Bulgaria into the same deep-tech frame, highlights the role of the European Commission, the European Innovation Council and the EIC Fund, and gives the ecosystem a concrete reference point for future conversations around capital, partnerships and scale.

This article was published on April 28, 2026 and last updated on May 05, 2026.

Contributors

Editors

French Tech Sofia
Official French Tech hub connecting the French and Bulgarian startup worlds

Author

Wilfried DURAND
Entrepreneur, Business Angel, Startup Advisor.

Sources

1. [1] Bulgarian satellite company EnduroSat opens space hub in Luxembourg (www.economic.bg)
2. [2] Alice & Bob lève 100 millions d’euros pour construire leur ordinateur quantique universel (www.frenchweb.fr)
3. [3] Eight European startups set to receive scale-up funding from the EIC under the STEP Scale Up scheme (eic.ec.europa.eu)