The cleantech narrative in Europe has long been dominated by the established hubs of the West, but a shifting geopolitical landscape and a rethink of EU competitiveness are finally turning the spotlight.
This shift was marked in Bucharest in Novemeber 2025, with the launch of Cleantech for SEE, by Clean European Futures, a platform aiming to bridge the gap between the region’s high-growth potential and the persistent “geography penalty” that many of its founders still face. This platform is part of larger movement: Cleantech for CEE, aiming to created a bridge between the innovation ecosystem between the Czech Republic all the way down to Cyprus. Cleantech for CEE was launched earlier in March 2025 in Warsaw by Suzana Carp in collaboration with Start Smart CEE, a foundation for technology entrepreneurship headquartered in Poland.
The SouthEast European chapter is the last puzzle piece in this wider construction that comes to fill this geographical gap by aiming to consolidate the ecosystems between the Danube, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
What happens in the EU countries from SouthEast Europe and how they leverage the Clean Industrial Deal is particularly important to the enlargement context, points Suzana Carp, CEO of Clean European Futures and Co-Founder of Cleantech for CEE & SEE. By building a strong tech and green energy network in Southeast Europe, the EU is showing neighbor countries that joining the union is the best way to turn their local startups into global competitors. With Cyprus leading the EU next, this mission to grow and innovate is now a top priority, she believes.
The high-growth paradox
The CEE ecosystem is currently a study in contradictions. While the region’s enterprise value has grown significantly faster over the last decade than more mature European markets, it remains chronically underserved by the very EU funding instruments designed to spark innovation. “For Europe to jump ahead in the global competitiveness race, it must change the strategy it has had so far,” says Carp.
The numbers back this up. Despite the pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions, SEE’s specialization in software-led cleantech and circular economy platforms allowed many of its startups to scale rapidly, partly because they were less vulnerable to the physical disruptions that hit hardware-heavy sectors, Carp explains.
“In fact, the general entreprise value growth of the SEE European region is many times higher than that of other European regions, because when companies have grown here, they have grown faster than in other places. Additionally, the region has seen a faster development of cleantech skills than other regions, with several innovators developing schools of skills (on heat pumps or wind for example). This model will surely be copied by the rest of Europe.”
The “bankability” barrier
However, the path from validation to market readiness is still paved with friction. High-profile EU instruments, such as the Innovation Fund and European Investment Bank (EIB) loans, often come with maturity requirements that don’t align with the ground reality in SEE.
Carp notes that these instruments underperformed in the region for years because they treat regional innovators with “maturity requirements that don’t match the reality on the ground, especially around issues related to bankability.” Romania, for instance, only accessed its first Innovation Fund project four years after the instrument’s inception, despite its heavy industrial base and active ecosystem.
“It is important that this is fixed by making these instruments more suitable for innovators before the next EU budget is agreed. Cleantech financing through the EIB will increase, and we must ensure we know how to access it in the region with the highest potential for fast growth and upskilling.”
Slovenian startup ReCatalyst is a textbook example of what deep-tech in Central/Eastern Europe can achieve when European programs and smart private capital align, but also a warning about invisible barriers that remain. Without ERC, EIT, and EIC support, their technology would have stayed in academic journals, deprived of the much wider real-world impact, Matija Gatalo, CEO of ReCatalyst notes, “but our journey also shows the other side of the story”…
“In CEE/SEE, geography still quietly shapes access to capital. We had to secure domestic investors just to unlock our otherwise oversubscribed Seed round, and we were once told that if we were based in Germany or Switzerland, we would have been funded long before. Initiatives like Cleantech for SEE matter because they build the bridges that founders in this region still have to construct on their own.”
A Theory of Change
Carp identifies “ecosystem consolidation” as the first hurdle to be cleared. While infrastructure issues like rail and electricity interconnections are long-term projects tied to the Connecting Europe Facility, building a unified voice for regional innovators is a change that can happen now.
“We need to develop a theory of change for the region which then creates a systemic shift,” Carp explains. She believes the upcoming Clean Industrial Deal will finally force the EU to address its previous “blindspots”, specifically the massive potential of SEE to leverage its own competitive advantages: abundant clean energy, a highly skilled workforce, and cost-competitiveness on land.
Notable funding shifts for 2026
To address these regional disparities, the European Innovation Council (EIC) has announced several strategic updates for its 2026 Work Programme aimed at easing the path for cleantech innovators:
- EIC Advanced Innovation Challenges: A new instrument designed to bridge the gap between early validation and market readiness.
- Two-Stage Scheme: Single applicants or small consortia can apply for an initial €300,000 grant for solution validation (TRL 4), followed by larger grants up to €2.5 million to reach market readiness (TRL 6–7).
- Process Flexibility: The EIC Accelerator is moving toward more submission points, shorter templates, and a stronger role for technical experts who will assess projects earlier in the process.
- Thematic Focus: Specific challenges will prioritize advanced materials for energy storage, deep-tech for climate adaptation, soil regeneration biotech, and critical raw-material value chains.
