C2C-NewCap and the EIC Accelerator: Supercapacitors for Trucks

C2C-NewCap, founded in 2014 by André Mão de Ferro and Rui Pedro Silva and based in Odivelas, Portugal, makes energy storage products built on supercapacitors. Its first product, GO-START, is built to replace a truck's lead-acid batteries. The company says it saves €2,000 of fuel per truck a year and cuts CO2 emissions by 11%, according to a 2026 profile by Ocean Exchange.

At the June 2022 EIC Accelerator cut-off C2C-NewCap's HYCAP 2.0 project was selected, and the company said it had been "awarded with 6 million Euros (in equity)", a total investment of €6 million, half assured by the EIC Fund. The money was for GO-START production scale-up, cheaper product design, a bigger sales team and international expansion. Because the award was equity rather than a grant, there is no project for this award on CORDIS, which instead lists C2C-NewCap as coordinator of an earlier 2019 EIC grant, a €2.47 million EIC Transition project and as a partner in other EU projects. C2C-NewCap has not announced that the EIC Fund investment closed, and has not published sales figures for GO-START.

Where C2C-NewCap Stands Now

The company joined the EIC Scaling Club, an EIC-funded network for scale-ups, announced at the Scale 100 Forum in Athens, according to its announcement. In 2025 it installed four solar-powered backup systems that keep traffic lights running in Lviv, Ukraine, during power cuts, with the city of Cascais, InnoEnergy and the Schréder Together Fund. It also represented EU green tech as an EIC-supported company at GITEX Europe in 2025. None of these announcements mentions a closed EIC Fund investment or GO-START volumes.

The Technology: Supercapacitors Beside Batteries

GO-START is designed as a direct replacement for the lead-acid batteries in EU trucks, the company says. The company's EIC Transition project, P.CAP, develops planar capacitors for high temperatures and mid frequencies, and its other EU projects cover electrode materials and hybrid long-duration storage.

What the EIC Award Promised, and What the Record Shows

C2C-NewCap's first EIC grant came earlier. At the 5 June 2019 cut-off of the EIC SME Instrument Phase 2, part of the Horizon 2020 EIC pilot, it was selected for HYCAP, which ran from 1 October 2019 to 31 December 2022 with an EU contribution of €1,421,875 towards a total cost of €2,031,250. Its expected results were to validate GO-START "with 10 targeted clients, and with at least one large fleet operator with more than 100 vehicles" and to scale up production for market entry. The final report says the company set up a new pilot manufacturing line, reached "industrial grade reproducibility" and tested GO-START with potential customers in Asia, the USA and Europe, and the company's projects page describes HYCAP as scaling GO-START production into a pilot line. In a 2023 CORDIS results article, André Mão de Ferro said the certified product "is now helping trucks deliver goods throughout the EU". Neither the report nor the company has named the 10 clients or a fleet operator with more than 100 vehicles.

The 2022 award promised production scale-up and international sales of GO-START, funded by equity. Equity investments by the EIC Fund are not reported on CORDIS. Without an announcement from the company or the fund, it cannot be confirmed that the investment was made or what it achieved.

1. HYCAP pilot line (2019)DeliveredCORDIS report, 2022.
2. 10 clients and a 100-truck fleetNot shownNone named.
3. EIC selectionSelectedJune 2022.
4. €3M EIC Fund equityNot confirmedNo announcement.
5. Production scale-upUnknownNo volumes published.
6. International salesSome projectsLviv, 2025.

The Money

C2C-NewCap's share of four Horizon Europe grants on CORDIS totals about €3.6 million, led by the €2.47 million EIC Transition project that began in October 2022. It has not published its revenue.

What Cannot Be Checked

Why Europe Should Care

According to the company, the EIC backed its 2022 award with equity alone, which leaves no project report on CORDIS. That makes it one of the hardest kinds of EIC support to follow: the public cannot see whether the money was paid or what it bought.

The Verdict

C2C-NewCap and the EIC have not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records and published statements, linked throughout.