Aarhus startups and scaleups close 2022 with a positive bottom line

Press release

2022 has been a challenging year for many companies, but in the entrepreneurial environment at INCUBA, the locomotive of growth has been going strong. In the annual IMPACT analysis, which took place at the end of 2022 among the companies in INCUBA a/s, many of the founders and CEOs surveyed reported positive operating results.


"We are very pleased to see that the companies have demonstrated such great results in a difficult 2022. In fact, the companies have not only experienced growth - their operating results even beat the previous years," says Mai Louise Agerskov, CEO of INCUBA a/s. 

According to a survey "Business Survey Aarhus Municipality December 2022" conducted by Megafon, 38% of businesses in Aarhus Municipality have experienced a deterioration in their financial situation in 2022. For many of the businesses, revenue may have increased, but more have experienced rising costs. This is mainly due to inflation and rising energy prices. In comparison, only 13% of INCUBA companies have experienced negative growth in 2022. Although the global economic crisis has made life difficult for many companies in Aarhus Municipality, it has not affected everyone equally.


"The companies in INCUBA are inherently agile and have business models that are adapted to current and future needs within digitalisation, the green transition and health. They are smaller organisations that are used to adapting their strategy to changes in the world around them, and they have taken full advantage of this in the past year when more than half of the companies launched new products," says Mai Louise Agerskov.

INCUBA companies are optimistic about the future

For many of the science park's companies, the top priority in 2023 is growth, for which they have predominantly positive expectations.

"We see positive expectations for 2023 on the same level as in previous years. A full 71% expect to increase revenue, while 51% expect to increase earnings. In light of the good results already in 2022, this paints a bright picture of the well-being of the growth layer of new companies," says CEO of INCUBA a/s, Mai Louise Agerskov.

In addition to the positive economic prospects, the analysis also shows that 90% of the companies would recommend INCUBA to other companies, partly because of the network and collaboration with Aarhus University, which has increased significantly compared to 2021. One of them is the IT company Partisia at INCUBA Katrinebjerg:

"It's important for us to have a single shared office space where we can meet and exchange ideas. We need to do this in a place that is very close to Aarhus University's IT environment, where we work closely with many researchers. We are happy to have our headquarters in INCUBA, both because of the opportunities for growth and flexibility we are met with - but also because it provides easy access to other companies with the competencies we need as a growth company," says Peter Frandsen, CTO of Partisia.

Also in 2022, biotech company Arcedi Biotech established a base and new laboratory in INCUBA with the aim of meeting expected growth in sales of the company's non-invasive prenatal diagnostic test, EVITA TEST Complete. In addition to investments in new facilities, the company has invested further in R&D and now has more than 20 employees based in INCUBA:

"We are about to enter a phase where EVITA TEST Complete will be commercialised in Denmark and internationally. For us, it has been obvious to establish ourselves in an entrepreneurial environment like INCUBA close to AU and AUH, which have been our partners for many years. INCUBA provides us with everything we need to continue the company's growth in our own dedicated incubation environment with all that it entails of experts in the healthcare sector and many leading life science companies that share a common spirit of collaboration," says Lotte Hatt, CSO at Arcedi Biotech.