Discover the World of Business Incubators

Overview of Business Incubators

• Business incubators help startup companies and entrepreneurs to develop their business by providing a range of services.
• Business incubators differ from research and technology parks as they focus on startup and early-stage companies.
• Incubators serve only selected clients, unlike the Small Business Administration's Small Business Development Centers.
• Within the European Union, there are different EU and state-funded programs that offer support in the form of consulting, mentoring, prototype creation, and co-funding.
• In India, business incubators are promoted in two ways: technology business incubators and startup incubators.
• The concept of business incubation began in the US in 1959 when Joseph L. Mancuso opened the Batavia Industrial Center in New York.
• According to the International Business Innovation Association, there are approximately 7,000 incubators worldwide.
• Business incubation is a means of meeting a variety of economic and socioeconomic policy needs, including job creation, technology commercialization, and community revitalization.
• One-third of business incubation programs are sponsored by economic development organizations.
• Rents and/or client fees account for 59% of incubator revenues, followed by service contracts or grants (18%) and cash operating subsidies (15%).
• Incubators often aggregate themselves into networks which share practices and methodologies.
• Europe's European Business and Innovation Centre Network ("EBN") association federates more than 250 European Business and Innovation Centres (EU|BICs) throughout Europe.