PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

Earlier this week, I attended the fifth annual conference of the UK Incubator and Accelerator Network in Birmingham.  Established by the influential Centre for Entrepreneurs thinktank, this collective connects and represents those ventures that offer physical space to new firms (incubators), organisations that deliver start-up support programmes (accelerators) and co-working spaces that provide flexible, shared offices. Whilst it was a real honour to be able to contribute to a panel discussing the future of the sector, one of the highlights of the conference was the presentation of the latest study examining the state of the sector and, more importantly, their role in stimulating entrepreneurship across the UK. This research showed that the sector is thriving with round 750 incubators, accelerators and support programmes now active in the UK, a doubling of the provision since the last examination of this phenomenon back in 2017.  Whilst London has the largest numbers of incuba...

There is increasing evidence that business incubators and accelerators – enterprise support programmes that are based within specific spaces to help startups grow – are becoming more prevalent across the UK. Indeed, the number of business incubators and accelerators has grown rapidly over the last few years and it is estimated that there may over 400 such organisations operating across the UK, supporting around 10,000 businesses at any one time. But what has been the impact of these business support mechanisms on businesses given that there may be around £30 million of public funding spent on them annually? A recent study from the innovation body NESTA has examined the impact of incubators and accelerators on the startups they support and investigate which types of support - provision of workspace, mentoring, funding or training – actually drive this impact. Their survey of 438 startups that that have previously or are currently attending an incubator or accelerator makes interesting r...

Last month, the innovation charity NESTA published a report examining the impact of property developments - such as incubators and accelerators - on the development of new and growing businesses. First established in the UK thirty years ago, incubators are typically defined as physical spaces that charge rent or membership fees to entrepreneurs and provide additional services such as training for entrepreneurs, access to networks and specialist equipment. The first accelerator in the UK was only founded in 2007 although the vast majority have been set-up during the last five years. They are different to incubators because they usually offer seed funding to resident businesses, usually in the form of an equity investment. They also put their tenants through a highly selective programme (that can last up to a year) to help them develop a business plan, prepare for pitching to potential investors and undertake initial market testing. So what is the impact of this type of busine...