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...
Entrepreneurship, innovation and the economy