Incubators

Development environments for Sweden’s future businesses

Behind many of the country’s successful young companies is an incubator that has provided support, coaching and networking. SISP brings together several of Sweden’s incubators and supports the development of these crucial environments for innovation and entrepreneurship. Below you will find facts, statistics and cases from different incubators.

What is an incubator?

An incubator is an organisation that supports new businesses to grow and succeed. By offering business development, coaching, networking and often even office space, incubators help entrepreneurs develop their ideas into sustainable and competitive businesses. Incubators can also be called accelerators.

What does an incubator do?

Incubators act as a springboard for start-ups. They provide support in everything from validating business ideas and building teams to finding funding and reaching the market. The aim is to shorten the path from idea to successful company.

Investing in incubated start-ups is a foolproof public investment.

Every public dollar invested in an incubator company attracts 4.4 private dollars.

Total public capital in the form of investments, loans and grants is increased by 340% in private investments. Investing in incubated start-ups is a foolproof public investment.

> 31

mdkr

Companies in Swedish incubators have a turnover of over 31 billion SEK.

16300

Approximately 16 300 people work in incubator companies.

Tax revenue with effect

mdkr

35 billion SEK wer generated in tax revenue from incubator companies and alumni last year.

* 70

Public investments in incubators have yielded up to 70 times the investment – in the form of tax revenue. (Based on aggregate ROI, not national total value.)

Capital that drives innovation

The companies in the incubators have attracted SEK 1 billion in owner capital.

Capital distribution by sector

505

mkr

Life Science

234

mkr

ICT

116

mkr

Industry

mkr

Energy and environment

4,500+ business ideas are evaluated annually.

Where the ideas come from:

40-50% independent innovators
20-25% from the academy
20-25 % from industry

290

290 new companies are accepted into incubator programs each year.

> 650

A total of 650–700 companies are in active incubation at the same time.

Gender equality in focus

Incubators are working systematically on gender equality, and this is producing results. Startups admitted to incubators have a significantly higher proportion of mixed ownership compared to the average in Sweden.

42% of incubator companies have both female and male owners.

Comparatively, only 6% of startups nationally have both female and male owners.

Higher chance of success

The survival rate of startups participating in the programme is 66% over 10 years. The same figure for all Swedish startups is 30%.

Results that matter – also globally

23 out of 33 companies on the New Tech 33 list have been or are part of an incubator.
7 Swedish incubators are included in the Financial Times/Statista list of the world’s top 150 startup hubs.

Source: All figures are based on incubator reporting via Inkrapp (2024).

National Incubator Programme

A joint initiative to strengthen Sweden’s innovative capacity

To create better conditions for new, innovative companies, SISP works to strengthen Sweden’s incubators. Through our network, we enable collaboration, quality assurance and visibility for the important role of incubators.

Discover more about the project

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members

Sweden’s innovative strength starts here

Our members are located throughout Sweden – from north to south. These physical innovation environments – incubators and science parks – support hundreds of startups, companies, development projects and clusters. Through local and regional presence and national co-operation, they drive innovation, growth and sustainable development.

Discover our members