Brussels, 12 February, 2025 -Today the European Commission officially launched the EUDIS Business Accelerator and Matchmaking (BAMM) programme under the EU Defence Innovation Scheme (EUDIS), a flagship initiative of the European Defence Fund (EDF)

to support new defence companies. This was made during the programme kick-off meeting attended by François Arbault, Director for Defence Industry at the European Commission and François Chopard, CEO of Starburst representing the consortium responsible for implementing the programme (Starburst Accelerator SAS – France/Germany, WSL - Belgium, Civitta Eesti AS - Estonia and Teknologian Tutkimuskeskus VTT OY - Finland). In addition to this consortium, other partners across various EU Member States will play a crucial role in scaling up and broadening the programme’s reach.

This initiative highlights the EU's strong commitment to fostering defence innovation, industrial readiness, preparedness and competitiveness of the European defence industrial ecosystem. These services aim to provide faster and leaner support to defence technology founders - start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs in navigating the defence market while enhancing their access to financing and partnerships.

The EUDIS Business Accelerator and Matchmaking programme features two key services:

EUDIS Business Accelerator: will provide comprehensive support to 20 companies over an 8-month acceleration period including strengthening knowledge about defence end-users´ needs, enhancing business development and go-to-market capabilities through dedicated testing activities, training,  coaching and matchmaking. The Business Accelerator will feature 6 onsite Bootcamps over several European destinations to enable European wide networking and dual-use exploration. Additionally, exhibitions and matchmaking events will enable companies to engage with potential investors, customers and end-users. The accelerator will conclude with an investor Demo Day scheduled in February 2026. Selected companies will receive a seed-financing voucher of €65,000.  A call for 20 companies to apply for the Accelerator programme is set to open in March 2025. The initiative is set to scale up in the coming years, expanding its reach to support more companies and foster innovation within the European defence ecosystem.