InnoRate: Bringing innovation to finance and finance to innovation through a Technology Rating System (ITRS)

InnoRate, financed by the European Union’s Horizon-2020 programme, is a project aiming to help tech-driven SMEs, start-ups and projects showcase their potential and access financial solutions necessary to scale and grow. The project deploys a service platform across the EU and Associated Countries that is based on the InnoRate Technology Rating System (ITRS). ITRS is a well customized data-driven innovation assessment and rating methodology, underpinned by the KOTEC Technology Rating System (KTRS) that has an established and successful track record of helping SMEs in the Republic of Korea raise the necessary funds.

The methodology is based on two components:

(i) a quick, fully automated assessment based on various business indicators (Pre-screening)

(ii) an in-depth assessment from human experts (Deep Assessment).

The ITRS, along with its rating methodology and digital decision-support tools, is piloted in the context of investment readiness and matchmaking services offered by the project to interested stakeholders, covering a diverse set of use cases. The project actively involves and connects with one another founders, innovators, technology transfer offices (TTOs), matchmaking firms, investors, and policymakers.

During the session, we will go through an overview of the project and the InnoRate Technology Rating System (ITRS), highlight how investors and innovators can benefit from InnoRate, demonstrate the digital tools of the InnoRate platform and their application in assessing innovation. Finally, we will share the lessons-learned over the course of 3 years of project as well as the recommendations on how to structure, promote and successfully deploy a data-driven Technology Rating System.