Innovation is key for boosting the competitiveness of the European economy, creating jobs and driving its sustainable growth and, therefore, has to be adequately supported through investments. Of course, when it comes to innovative SMEs with high-growth potential that can play a pivotal role in driving economic growth, access to finance can be a bit of a challenge. At the same time, the current state of play in assessment methodologies does not seem to be able to mitigate the risk aversion of investors, who end up passing up on very promising investment opportunities.
InnoRate’s purpose is to support and improve the decision-making processes of investors for financing innovative, tech-driven SMEs. For doing so, we set on deploying a novel service platform across the EU and Associated Countries (AC), offering objective and forward-looking rating methodologies to technology and innovation.
Our novel service platform will provide a suite of digital decision support tools and services, reinforced by well-customised innovation assessment and rating methodologies that go beyond the traditional credit-focused approaches in evaluating the technological and business potential and risks of innovations.
InnoRate will lead to a scalable blend of services and tools that have a significant potential for improving Europe’s innovation financing in terms of:
- Minimising the time and resources required by investors and lenders for assessing innovative projects of SMEs.
- Making the prospects of innovative SMEs clear to investors.
- Mitigating investors’ perceived financial risks and empowering them to make better informed decisions.
- Reducing information asymmetries and risk premiums paid by innovative project managers.
