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Denmark's largest IT and tech innovation environment is in Aarhus

Thanks to its high number of large corporations, globally recognized IT-institutes, and its rich community of entrepreneurs and startups, Aarhus stands out as Denmark’s leading center of innovation in the field of IT and technology, providing innovative IT- and tech-organizations with unique business opportunities in Aarhus. As a result, large international corporations are now, too, drawn towards the city and are choosing to locate their R&D departments at INCUBA Science Park.

Aarhus, Denmark's second-largest city, renowned for its rich cultural heritage, vibrant cultural scene, and remarkable student-life, has also cemented its status as a hub for technological innovation. This becomes highly evident when observing the increasing number of American technological corporations that choose to move their R&D departments to INCUBA, which is the leading environment of innovation and entrepreneurship in Aarhus.

Strong connection between Aarhus University and companies in INCUBA

For a long time INCUBA has been the ideal place for tech-giants to locate their R&D departments. Among others, because of its attractive location near Aarhus University, that among others is famous for its top tier ranking in cryptology. Additionally, the institute is internationally known for its research that includes a wide array of subjects within the field of computer science, such as algorithmsØ, artificial intelligence, databases, visual perception of knowledge, human-machine-interaction, programming language, program verification, safety, and cryptology. 

“At the Institute of Computer Science, we actively contribute to innovation and collaboration between businesses in order to foster growth and development within our society. We do that in collaboration with businesses, where INCUBA offers unique settings. Our alumni have drawn Google, VMWare and Uber to Aarhus, and these organizations were, to begin with, offered spaces at INCUBA. Several strong IT- and blockchain organizations at INCUBA have also spun out of the institute – for example Partisia, Sepior, SCALGO and Kvantify. Numerous organizations move to INCUBA with the aim of getting in contact with our students and recruiting them through projects and student jobs,” says Kaj Grønbeck, Professor and Leader of the Institute of Computer Science. Read more about our collaboration with Aarhus University here.

Google, VMware, Uber & Chainalysis created development departments at INCUBA

One organization that chose to settle down in INCUBA is Google, which is one of the most influential tech-organizations in the world. From 2014 to 2021 Google had its development department at INCUBA Katrinebjerg. Under the leadership of among others chief of department, Lars Bak, and developer, Kasper Lund, they created the groundbreaking motor for Google Chrome which you can read much more about here.

Google’s success has been followed by other American organizations such as VMware, which is a global leader of virtual machine software and private cloud-solutions, Uber, a technology platform that connects drivers and passengers and with Chainalysis which specializes in the development of tools for blockchain analysis. Both organizations chose to locate their development departments in INCUBA at a time where they were able to benefit from the collaboration, networking and access to talents and other resources, INCUBA offers, while focusing on growth.

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Access to talents

For us, locating our development department in an environment like INCUBA has been very important. We started with 3-4 software developers in our development department at INCUBA. It turned out that the access to talent and the many small companies that work across organisations helped us find the right colleagues for our team.

- Emil Andersen, People Manager at Chainalysis

Microsoft, Sepior by Blockdaemon & Cactus Communications thrive in INCUBAs tech-environment

Today, INCUBA still accommodates American businesses. An example of that is Microsoft, one of the world’s largest organizations within the field of technology, which since 2018 has had its department of development at INCUBA Katrinebjerg. At Katrinebjerg, the organization currently employs more than fifty employees who are daily occupied with tech-innovation.

In addition to locating their research and development departments in INCUBA, there are also good chances for acquisitions from American tech-giants. In 2013, the American organization, Xamarin, for example acquired the Aarhus-based organization LessPainful, which resulted in an increase in the number of employees from 2 to 14 over the subsequent years. Furthermore, in April 2016, Microsoft acquired Xamarin to further develop the department in Aarhus, which has developed a tool that allows developers to develop apps for both iOS, Android, and Windows with the same C# code.

Another example of an organization at INCUBA that has been acquired by a large American corporation is Sepior, which is a spinout-organization from Aarhus, based in INCUBA Navitas. Since its founding in 2014, the founders of Sepior have remained consistently dedicated to their shared passion:

The convergence of deep knowledge and groundbreaking technology. This commitment has also driven them to become world champions in MPC-based cryptographic key management.


In 2022 Sepior was acquired by the leading American organization within the discipline of blockchain, namely Blockdaemon from Silicon Valley. As a result, the organization became Sepior by Blockdaemon, that now works 100% with blockchain and crypto currency for b2b-clients. Read more about the match with Blockdaemon here.


With a background in computer science, a crypto-research-group at Aarhus University and many years of collaboration with the Alexandra Institute, it is highly evident that Sepior’s foundation is rooted in a strong, knowledge-intensive IT environment which is also one of INCUBAs fundamental components that is very attractive to international organizations.


Another organization based in INCUBA Navitas is Unsilo, which in 2020 was acquired by Indian Cactus Communications, that delivers scientific communication. Unsilo was a startup-software organization, which delivered services within the realm of AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP), specialized in text mining, linguistics, and data science, founded by Mads Rydahl and Thomas Laursen. Read more here.

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Inspiring community

Our workplace thrives here at INCUBA. Centrally located office space with access to common areas, reception, canteen and fitness centre. An inspiring community of companies that creates a dynamic and connected work experience.

- Mikkel Priskorn, Service Engineer at Microsoft

STMicroelectronics secures its future in INCUBA Next

In October 2024 the INCUBA Next extension at Katrinebjerg will welcome a number of growth-oriented organizations with more than 40 employees, focusing on technology. Here, the building’s modern and effective settings will help businesses to grow – near students, researchers, and startups.

One organization which has already secured itself a spot at INCUBA Next is the Danish department of STMicroelectronics (ST), a multinational company headquartered in Geneva, with roots in France and Italy, and a global leader in semiconductor production. With more than 20 employees and plans to grow, STMicroelectronics are very happy to become part of INCUBA Next and to experience the innovative IT- and Tech-community which will help the organization to strengthen its global market position.

STs Danish office stems from its subsidiary, Mjølner Informatics, Draupner Graphics, which was behind TouchGFX – a software framework for building up microcontroller based graphic user interfaces.

In 2018, after four years of development, Draupner Graphics Ltd. announced the sale of the organization to the international semiconductor producer, STMicroelectronics. Since the acquisition, STMicroelectronics has invested further in additional employees and the innovative software product.

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Strong innovative software competencies

ST has become aware of the strong innovative software-competencies, Aarhus offers. Today, we are more than 20 employees, and our ambition is to grow further. Therefore, we have long planned to become part of INCUBA in order to attract the right competencies within the field of electronics and software, which will further strengthen our global market position. At INCUBA Next, we will have better chances of hiring the right candidates and to consequently expand our business. As such, we can follow our plan of growing within an innovative IT- and tech-community like INCUBA, surrounded by equal-minded scaleups.


- Jørgen Mygind, Site Manager at STMicroelectronics. Read more here.

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