“The Czech economy needs to look for new sources of growth. The startup ecosystem in our country has a growing share in gross domestic product and employment. Technology incubation, which cooperates with almost half of these companies, fundamentally helps the development of innovation potential and competitiveness of our country. At the same time, we need to improve the business environment for innovative start-ups to do business at home and contribute to the local economy, as many start-ups choose to relocate abroad due to more favourable conditions.” says Jan Michal, Director General of the CzechInvest agency.
Launched in 2022, the project offers direct funding of up to CZK 4.5 million and expert advice worth CZK 500,000. It focuses on seven key areas, including artificial intelligence, advanced materials, mobility, creative industries, aerospace technologies, ecology and circular economy, preserving and protecting life or improving its quality (including healthcare, biotechnology and security solutions). The uniqueness of the project also lies in its layout – in addition to mentoring, business and financial support for startups, the project is built on so-called innovation hubs that support the development of the ecosystem in the sector and engagement in it. This encourages startups to collaborate with each other as well as with established companies, associations or associations and other actors.
Technology incubation also links the public, private and academic spheres. It creates room for synergies between these three sectors to maximise added value for startups. The effort includes a team focused on working closely with science and research organizations and universities. Also as a result, more than sixty of the supported projects originate from research organisations.
“This is the largest initiative to date to support the startup environment in the Czech Republic, inspired by foreign countries and our successful space incubator ESA BIC Czech Republic. We have been working intensively with startups for one to two years and now the time has come when we can reap the fruits of successfully completed stories. In the past year, 31 projects have completed incubation alone and nearly 20 new products are already on the market. Some of the supported companies have already received their first investors and major awards, such as the startups Tolgee, Dynanic and Sensorie. It is clear from the number of start-ups that are applying that there is a lot of interest in the project,” said Tereza Kubicová, deputy for technological development of the CzechInvest agency.
The fifth project call closed at the end of November 2024 and attracted 153 startups, with the greatest interest in the fields of artificial intelligence, creative industries and technology for life. The last call for interested companies is planned for the first half of this year. The project runs until 31 December 2027, by which time all incubated projects must be completed. There are currently over 1,500 startups in the pre-incubation, which is open year-round.
The Technology Incubation represents the largest initiative to support startups in the history of the Czech Republic with a total allocation of approximately CZK 680 million. The project is funded from the state budget through the Ministry of Industry and Trade under The Country for the Future programme.
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