NEWS - 19 December 2023

The year that passed - looking back at 2023 and looking forward to 2024

A wide range of strengths make Aarhus an attractive place to start a new business, scale up or invest in. Much of the growth in our city is thanks to a thriving startup and scaleup community, which also includes spinouts from the world-class Aarhus University and other higher education programmes.

INCUBA's entrepreneurial environment and community is home to numerous initiatives that create new, innovative ideas, from robotics, quantum computing and AI to energy and green industrial parks. The companies in INCUBA are all growth companies within IT/tech, cleantech & life sciences, and they all share knowledge and inspiration across industries and sizes.

Mai Louise Agerskov, CEO in INCUBA

Startups scale and win awards

MyMedCards, Silverlining Research, Partisia and Nioba received Gazelle awards in 2023, recognising them as some of the fastest growing companies in Denmark. Signaturgruppen came in an impressive 2nd place on the top 100 list of Denmark's most skilled IT security companies right now, as ranked by Computerworld.

In addition, Whistleblower Software won the award as this year's startup pitch winner at the regional finals of EY's Entrepreneur Of The Year, while Mindwai AI, CAPSULE, Prochimp and Clutch Nutrition were nominated. All five companies are or have been affiliated with INCUBA.

INCUBA StartupLab has attracted innovative companies such as MedicQuant, RoboE and Clutch Nutrition. The former is an example of a spinout from Aarhus University that has developed a device for measuring drugs in the blood - an important tool for the treatment of stroke, among other things. Another example is the company Battman Energy, which in less than a year has grown out of StartupLab and already employs more than ten employees in cleantech and project development of battery parks across the country. Meet two of them in the video below.

Major expansion of the IT/tech community at Katrinebjerg with INCUBA Next

2023 was also marked by the fact that INCUBA is in the process of expanding its existing facilities at Katrinebjerg, which currently house around 70 specialised IT companies. In 2024, INCUBA will open its new extension, INCUBA Next, where slightly larger companies will have the opportunity to move into a hyper-modern setting - right in the middle of the strong IT environment.

Companies such as Partisia, Kvantify, SCALGO and STMicroelectronics have already rented offices in the future IT/tech community, and the former emphasises the business-enhancing environment as a decisive factor. Partisia, a pioneer in blockchain, cryptography and MPC, has just signed a lease for two floors in INCUBA Next:

"We are excited 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 competences that we as a growth company need," says Peter Frandsen, CTO of Partisia.

Below are two aerial photos of INCUBA Katrinebjerg. On the left is the construction site as it looked in December 2022, while the image on the right shows the construction progress one year later in December 2023.

Photos: Jesper Larsen – Luftfotodanmark.dk

Growth-generating activities and events

INCUBA organises many events throughout the year, both for INCUBA companies and the Aarhus startup ecosystem. From networking breakfasts and seminars, the pitch event Gin & Tech, INCUBA Exclusive, Aarhus Investor Summit, and the DHL relay race - and 2023 was no exception. The year offered a mix of events of both a professional and social nature. The Aarhus Investor Summit 2023 was held at Aarhus City Hall on 5 October and gathered over 200 participants, including 110 investors, 26 exhibiting startups and 11 pitch cases seeking capital. The startups covered a wide range of industries, from healthcare (HĀTO Medical Technologies) to ocean energy (Crestwing), robotics (ROBOE) and quantum computing (Kvantify). The latter won the Startup of the Year award, while Claus Hansen was named Investor of the Year. Read more here.

Welcome, 2024!

At INCUBA, we have a tradition of starting the new year by sharing the results of the previous year's IMPACT survey. The survey was sent to all founders, CEOs and department heads at the beginning of December 2023, and they are currently in the process of completing it. The analysis reveals, among other things, how the year went in terms of fundraising, revenue, results and development - but also the companies' expectations for 2024.

In 2024, the ambition is also to welcome many new companies to INCUBA's community and on the internal front, INCUBA is strengthening the organisation with a new Director of Acceleration & Investor Relations. Jacob Mogensen comes with more than 15 years of experience from Agro Business Park and the national cluster, Food and Bio Cluster. Jacob has, among other things, coached a large number of startups and helped them get investment both in the form of soft funding and from investors. At INCUBA, Jacob's tasks will include spearheading the further development of INCUBA StartupLab and the investor and mentor network.

Last but not least, there are many exciting events coming up, including Slush'D in the spring, Aarhus Investor Summit in the autumn, Gin & Tech, INCUBA Exclusive and much more. Stay updated on INCUBA events here.

"We look forward to continuing to celebrate our companies' successes, strengthen our network and contribute to Aarhus' position as a leading innovation and entrepreneurial environment. Together we look optimistically towards 2024, where we will continue to focus on growth, innovation and development in collaboration with the ambitious companies in the INCUBA community and all our great partners and collaborators in the Danish ecosystem," says Mai Louise Agerskov.