Norwegian technology company receives NOK 145 million from the EU

Iris secured this funding through EIC Accelerator, part of Horizon Europe, the EU's research and innovation programme. Competition is fierce, and only the most innovative companies succeed.

Of the nearly 1,000 eligible companies from across Europe, 250 progressed to pitch and be interviewed by a jury. Ultimately, 78 of these companies were offered funding from the world's largest research and innovation programme in this round.

'Congratulations to Iris. This award demonstrates the importance of Norwegian participation in Horizon Europe for Norwegian companies, and once again shows that Norwegian deep tech is world-class,' says Håkon Haugli, our CEO.

Iris.ai has previously received a commercialisation grant from us. In this round, our EU advisers provided advisory both before and after the company secured funding from the EIC Accelerator. Investinor also provided valuable support in refining the presentation from an investor perspective.

Iris's main product is 'the Researcher Workspace', which was released in beta in 2022 after several years of research and development. It is an AI-powered workspace for anyone who needs to manage large volumes of scientific documents – from patents and articles to internal reports – where facts and accuracy are essential.

'Our solution adds a layer of intelligence to any document collection,' says Anita Schjøll Abildgaard, CEO of Iris.

Users can upload document collections, import openly available research or patent databases, connect directly to internal databases, or access documents they subscribe to through paid services. Iris's tool works whether the collections contain 100 or 50,000,000 articles.

'We are already solving problems that simply cannot be tackled manually, and in the long term, we are building a powerful, interdisciplinary artificial intelligence that can help us uncover new insights from billions of published research findings,' says Schjøll Abildgaard.

Iris.ai has worked in this field for seven years and is a global leader in natural language processing, specifically for scientific and technical texts. The company is registered in Norway, but its team is spread across the EU, and it has ambitious plans for global growth.

Iris has now received close to NOK 25 million in grants from the EIC, as well as an offer of up to NOK 120 million in equity investment. This equity investment usually takes the form of a capital injection, with the EIC Fund purchasing new shares or providing the company with a convertible loan.

'This demonstrates the high level of innovation in Norwegian business and industry. Securing approval for an EIC Accelerator application is extremely competitive, and only the most innovative companies succeed. Iris shows other Norwegian companies that significant funding is available through the EU system,' says Håkon Haugli, our CEO.

'We have received a great deal of help from Innovation Norway throughout this process – both when we reached the interview stage but did not make it all the way last year, and again this year. They have given us tremendous moral support and genuinely wanted us to succeed. They have been cheering us on every step of the way,' says Schøll Abildgaard.

Before the jury interviews, we provided coaching sessions and organised a dress rehearsal with a mock 'jury' that included representatives from Investinor and our team.

'Being selected confirms what we have known all along: what we do is important, unique and difficult. It takes time, which means we have never been a natural fit for traditional venture capital. The funding will therefore help us scale up the commercial growth phase we embarked on 18 months ago by completing and improving Researcher Workspace and bringing it to our global market,' says Schjøll Abildgaard.

The EIC Accelerator (European Innovation Council Accelerator) is an EU funding scheme that enables small and medium-sized enterprises to apply for grants of up to EUR 2.5 million, as well as equity investment of up to EUR 15 million.

EIC Accelerator funding supports breakthrough innovations with strong international growth potential and a significant positive impact on the environment and society. If your application is successful, you will receive funding, coaching and accelerator services. The scheme is funded through Horizon Europe, the EU's framework programme for research and innovation.

We are the national contact point for the EIC Accelerator and provide advisory on developing your EIC application, pitching and preparing to answer challenging questions from a jury in Brussels.