10 years of making funding open. Now, the next chapter begins.
When we started FundingBox, our mission was simple: make funding accessible, transparent, and fair. Over the past decade, with 15,000+ applications processed and €230M under management, we’ve shown that small funding tickets can empower big innovation.
Now we’re entering a new phase: OpenFunding for Europe’s Open Strategic Autonomy. And you — our community of innovators, corporates, and partners — are at the center of it.
What is “Open Strategic Autonomy”?
Europe’s new vision is to stay open to global collaboration while building the ability to act independently when needed.
For innovators like you, this means:
- More opportunities through Horizon Europe and beyond.
- Faster decisions on funding applications.
- Stronger ecosystems where startups, corporates, and governments collaborate.
Why This Matters Now
For decades, Europe has outsourced key areas:
- Technology to the US
- Manufacturing to China
- Energy to Russia
- Defense to NATO
But Europe has always been strong in Research & Development. With Horizon Europe — the world’s largest R&D program — and new global partnerships (Canada, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan), Europe is betting big on innovation.
And so are we.
OpenFunding: Your Role in Europe’s Future
Just as Open Innovation transformed how companies do R&D, OpenFunding is transforming how governments distribute funding.
Here’s what that means for you:
- Startups & SMEs → More access to cascade funding and bottom-up experiments.
- Corporates → New ways to engage with governments and test technologies before investing.
- Investors → Streamlined legal tools like EU-SAFE to accelerate deals.
FundingBox: Leading the Change Together
Here’s how our community has already made impact:
🌱 Seeds of Bravery — €20M to support Ukrainian tech talent, the largest-ever EU cascade funding project.
🚀 OnePass pilot — the largest number of single applicants ever, now powering the EIC-funded BOOST initiative.
💸 Venture success — 17 investments made, with our first successful exit.
🤝 320+ partners across Europe supporting innovators.
⚡ TechFinders — enabling “test-before-invest” so technologies meet the market faster.
🔗 EU-SAFE — creating a standardized, startup-friendly investment tool.
What this means for you:
- Faster, simpler access to grants and investments.
- A growing network of partners and peers.
- Tools that reduce friction and accelerate growth
Open Innovation for Corporates & Governments
We know startups can’t succeed without strong corporate and government engagement. That’s why our Open Innovation stack connects you across the ecosystem:
- Access government grants aligned with strategic autonomy.
- Find and test deep tech solutions via matchmaking platforms.
- Pilot technologies in real environments before scaling.
- Match early-stage startups with investors, faster, using verifiable OnePass credentials.
Looking Ahead: Europe’s Big Bets to 2027
The EU is preparing major shifts in the next years — and you’ll be part of them:
- Doubling Horizon Europe’s budget to €200B → more opportunities for innovators.
- Introducing Innovation as Europe’s “5th freedom” → making it a core right alongside goods, services, capital, and people.
- Linking industrial competitiveness to R&D&I → ensuring research leads to markets.
- Faster implementation across member states → aligning action at scale.
With your participation, we’ll make sure funding stays open, transparent, and fair — and accelerates Europe’s autonomy in the process.
🚀 Ready for the next step?
- Search live funding opportunities on OnePass
- Learn about Seeds of Bravery
- Explore our VC fund
- See how EU-SAFE is making investing simpler
Together, we’re building the future of OpenFunding and OpenInnovation — for startups, corporations, and Europe.
About the author
Sanyu Karani
Co-CEO and Founder
I have pioneered funding allocation for innovation from the black box days back in the 90’s to OpenFunding on-line platforms today. This journey has helped our teams raise close to 1.2 Billion euros for 160.000 small companies so far in partnership with private corporations (Microsoft) and governments (European Commission).