Having taken place in Brussels on February 20, the EIP-SCC matchmaking event – promoted by the European Commission under the EIP-SCC Marketplace initiative – brought together city/regional representatives, businesses, and investors. It focused on exploring and shaping opportunities for those involved in Smart City projects.
Almost a hundred participants with either a Smart City background or interest could learn about existing Smart City best practices in the areas of mobility, ICT and energy in the Explore Zone while EIP-SCC experts assisted in shaping the concept of planned Smart City projects or planned investments in a round-table format during the Shape discussions. Finally, attendants could engage in 1:1 meetings between solution providers and the investment community during the target-oriented Deal matchmaking sessions on Smart Cities and Communities (pre-registration was required).
In sum, the EIP-SCC matchmaking event offered a unique opportunity for persons in charge of policy-making, representing cities/regions while offering advice to cities to learn from best practices, present their projects and find investors. Georg Houben, EIP-SCC Policy Officer at European Commission, stated: “We offer a forum for discussions, assist in the development of innovative urban ideas and bring together urban innovators, developers as well as investors and private equity.“
EIP-SCC Investment Panel
The matchmaking event featured an investor panel discussion focusing on what makes projects bankable and what investors expect from project proposals.
The panel consisted of Jessica Stromback from Joule Assets Europe, Carlos Sanchez from the Smart City Infrastructure Fund and Heimen Visser from Primevest Capital Partners. The matchmaking expert Jorge Rodrigues de Almeida from the EIP-SCC consortium moderated it.
“We aimed to address the main requirements that a project developer/owner must ensure before submitting a project concept to an investor”, Rodrigues de Almeida outlined.
Explore Zone: Expert advice on proven and tested solutions
The Explore Zone offered all Horizon2020 Lighthouse projects to showcase themselves through banners and leaflets, together with additional posters about the EIP-SCC Action Clusters and initiatives providing additional facts and figures for the many activities under the EIP-SCC Marketplace umbrella. The projects and networks presented were: SmartEncity, mySMARTLife, Triangulum, SCIS, +Cityxchange, European Enterprise Network, GrowSmarter, Remourban, CityFied and Ruggedised.
Shape Discussions: Developing proposals for Smart City needs
At eight roundtables, each examining a different key topic in the Smart City universe, proven experts from the Smart City world and the EIP-SCC Action Clusters advised interested participants in shaping their concept of planned smart city projects or investments. These Shape discussions met the existing need of project and proposal development.
Deal Meetings: Support for plans and ideas to seal investment deals
The event featured sixteen 20-minute deal meetings between investors and city representatives/project developers. The EIP-SCC team who carried out a profiling and matchmaking process among the project concepts received and the investors’ requirements manually scheduled all these meetings. The meetings were regarded as successful, with positive feedback received both from investors and project developers.
The next matchmaking for cities or project promoters with Smart City ambitions will take place in Brno (Czechia) on June 3-4 during the URBIS Smart City Fair. Stay tuned on Twitter, LinkedIn, and sign up for the EIP-SCC newsletter.
All photos by Esben Pejstrup, ICLEI / EIP-SCC Consortium