For many startups, international trade fairs and corporate meetings are full of handshakes, business cards, and hopeful follow-ups but end with little to show for it and no tangible results.
For startups and scale-ups backed by the European Innovation Council (EIC) Business Acceleration Services, recent activity is showing what can happen when that exposure turns into something more concrete: contracts, pilots, and technology partnerships.
Below we outline the experience of Croatian AgriTech startup AGRIVI, Austria-based AgriTech startup Dimetor, and Polish DeepTech company WIDMO Spectral Technologies – all exemplifying how structured support can accelerate internationalisation.
“Being part of the EIC Pavilion puts you in an exclusive club. It instantly raises your profile and opens doors to executives who would otherwise be extremely difficult to meet,” shares Thomas Neubauer, Dimetor CEO.
From visibility to commercial traction
For EIC awardees, the value of business acceleration is not only the badge. The EIC International Trade Fairs Programme provides a dedicated presence at global events, business coaching, targeted matchmaking, and promotional opportunities.
The EIC Corporate Partnership Programme adds another route to market by connecting innovators with large companies looking for technologies that can be tested in real operational settings.
Together, these programmes reflect a practical challenge for European DeepTech companies: breakthrough technology often needs more than funding to scale. It needs access to buyers, decision-makers, international markets, and trusted settings where new solutions can be validated.
AGRIVI scales digital agriculture globally
AGRIVI, an EIC Accelerator-backed company from Croatia, shows how the trade fair model can support market entry in a complex and fragmented sector.
The company develops digital solutions across the agrifood value chain, including farm management software that helps farmers improve productivity, profitability, sustainability, and operational efficiency.
The company’s EIC-funded solution, AI Engage, addresses a structural challenge in agriculture: the shortage of accessible advisory services, particularly for small and medium-sized farms. AI Engage deploys tailored AI agents trained on company-specific knowledge bases, enabling advisory organisations and agribusinesses to provide real-time support to farmers through WhatsApp, Viber, and SMS.
Through participation at GITEX Global 2025 in Dubai and GITEX Africa 2026 in Marrakech, AGRIVI secured two major commercial milestones:
- It closed a six-figure annual contract with an Emirati-owned agrifood company operating across Latin America, Europe, South Africa, and the Philippines
- Signed a technology partnership with Moroccan AgriTech company DeepLeaf, combining conversational AI with image-based diagnostics.
The Emirati client selected AGRIVI as its central farm management platform to standardise operations, unify data, and support compliance for exports to the European market.
“Being associated with an official European Union body clearly increases credibility, and that helps a lot when building trust with new clients,” says Matija Zulj, founder and CEO of AGRIVI.
To read more about AGRIVI’s journey, click here.
Dimetor turns MWC visibility into revenue and new telecom partnerships
Austrian EIC Accelerator company Dimetor provides critical data software for aviation, cybersecurity, and defence. By integrating connectivity data within telecom networks and delivering it to industries, the company enables use cases such as unmanned aviation and beyond visual line of sight drone operations at scale.
Dimetor’s participation at MWC 2025 and 2026, supported by the EIC International Trade Fairs Programme 3.0, gives the company access to senior decision-makers across the telecommunications and connectivity value chain.
During MWC 2025, the company held meetings that directly contributed to more than €1.5 million in booked revenue and long-term engagements with major European telecom operators.
The company signed new or expanded partnerships with British Telecom, KPN, and Telefónica, alongside confidential contracts with a major industrial player across Europe, the United States, and Canada.
The momentum also positioned Dimetor for larger tenders, with its pipeline projected to exceed €10 million as traction continues in 2026.
The changing geopolitical context is increasing demand for dual-use telecom applications. At MWC 2026, defence emerged as a prominent theme, and Dimetor was invited into discussions and defence panels alongside representatives from major telecom companies, European ministries, and national security agencies.
“This year was a breakthrough. Telecom operators have now fully committed to building defence divisions, and they introduced us directly to their defence arms. That would not have happened without being physically present and visible through the EIC Pavilion,” says Thomas.
To read more about Dimetor’s journey, click here.
WIDMO moves from corporate matchmaking to a Ferrovial pilot
While AGRIVI and Dimetor show how trade fairs can generate commercial traction, WIDMO Spectral Technologies highlights the role of the EIC Corporate Partnership Programme in turning corporate challenges into real-world pilots.
The Polish EIC Accelerator-backed startup develops spectral ground-penetrating radar technology for non-invasive subsurface surveys. Its system combines proprietary hardware with analytical software to identify underground objects, utilities, geological structures, voids, and existing infrastructure.
Results can be visualised in 2D and 3D and integrated into GIS and BIM systems, supporting better planning before construction begins.
WIDMO’s collaboration with Ferrovial began through a venture clienting process, with Ferrovial defining innovation focus areas before WIDMO was selected to participate in the EIC Multi-Corporate Day in Madrid in June 2025.
The event brought together major construction and infrastructure companies with 18 EIC-backed innovators from 10 countries.
The engagement evolved into a technical pilot evaluating WIDMO’s technology for pre-construction subsurface assessments. The pilot focused on the Castellana Tunnel in Madrid and Ferrovial Lab in Seseña-Madrid, assessing soil stability, tunnel cover, subsurface anomalies, utility routes, and geological conditions.
According to Ferrovial’s update, the pilot achieved four of five defined project objectives, including identifying utility locations, determining tunnel depth, and detecting zones of loosened soil.
For Ferrovial, the collaboration provided practical insight into the potential and limitations of an emerging technology under operational conditions.
“Initiatives like the EIC Corporate Partnership Programme are valuable because they help large corporations focus on solutions that are practically relevant to real business challenges. The collaboration with WIDMO provided an opportunity to explore an emerging technology within a real-world project context, allowing us to assess its potential and limitations under actual operational conditions,” says Ciro Acedo Boria, Head of Open Innovation Ecosystem at Ferrovial.
To read more about WIDMO’s journey, click here.
A practical route to market for European innovation
Taken together, the three examples show what these EIC programmes can deliver when international exposure is backed by the right support:
- For AGRIVI, it is a new international customer and an African technology partnership.
- For Dimetor, the result is revenue and a larger defence and telecom pipeline.
- For WIDMO, it is a pilot with a major infrastructure group that can support future adoption of DeepTech solutions.
For European startups, the lesson is clear. Showing up at international trade fairs or corporate meetings is only the first step. What matters is arriving prepared, meeting the right people, and having a realistic path from the first conversation to commercial traction.
