UK support for startup companies provided by business incubators and accelerators is thriving, according to The Centre for Entrepreneurs’ (CFE) latest report, Incubation Nation: The acceleration of UK startup support.
UK support for startup companies provided by business incubators and accelerators is thriving, according to The Centre for Entrepreneurs’ (CFE) latest report, Incubation Nation: The acceleration of UK startup support.
The report, authored by Dr Chris Haley, and with the support of the National Enterprise Network and others, examined the state of accelerators, incubators and related startup support organisations in the UK.
The study found evidence of over 400 incubators, 300 accelerators and a number of other support programmes.
Total numbers are almost double those found in the last comparable report, published by NESTA in 2017 which points to a thriving business support sector and indicates a major success factor in the UK’s entrepreneurial economy.
The report is the result of a nine-month research effort with over 100 programmes surveyed in-depth, supplemented by interviews.
CFE CEO, Timothy Barnes, underlined the importance of this report:
“Incubators and accelerators are critical parts of the support infrastructure for new businesses, particularly those with the potential to scale and create jobs and economic growth for the whole country. The rapid growth in the number and ambition of these programmes is a strong indicator of the health of the UK’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. As we emerge from the economic difficulties of the last few years and look ahead to more turbulent times good quality business support should matter to everyone.”
Dr Christopher Haley, lead author of the report also led the last comparable survey in 2017:
“The scale of growth is not something we were expecting to see and is very welcome. There are issues ahead for the sector with imminent changes to public sector funding presenting both opportunities for new activities and a potential threat to successful activity that should be protected given the impact and value of business support programmes to UK PLC.”
Headline figures:
- Business incubator and accelerator programmes have nearly doubled in number over the last five years
- Over 750 structured business startup programmes are now active across the UK. This includes 440 incubators and 314 accelerators.
- An estimated 19,600 firms are now supported each year – representing one in 20 new firms.
Key messages:
- The near doubling of programmes since 2017 indicates a major success factor in the UK’s entrepreneurial economy.
- Programmes were identified across the UK and while the largest concentration was in London, there are now incubators in every LEP region in England as well as across Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, the first time such a spread has been identified.
- Public funding contributes about one-third of the total funding to the sector and is used by incubator and accelerator managers to leverage considerably more money from the private sector and is thus critical to this important activity.
To view the full report click here.
