The innovation environments in Norway experience great influx these days. Siva has a specific programme with the purpose of assuring quality of the services offered to the entrepreneurs by the incubators and business parks. 35 incubators participate in the programme, including Nyskapingsparken in Bergen.
The services offered by the incubators are highly popular. According to Siva’s press release, their incubators accepted more than 70 per cent more companies to their programmes in 2016 compared to 2015. Nyskapingsparken contributed strongly to the growth in Bergen, with the astonishing growth of 253 per cent from 2015 to 2016.
In total, 65 start-ups make use of the services of Nyskapingsparken on pre-incubation or incubation. On a national level, about 1600 companies were affiliated with the incubation programme of Siva in 2016.
Analysis executed on existing or former members of Siva’s incubation programme since 2013 demonstrate that they have accumulated sales of 12,9 billion kroner and added value of 2,6 billion kroner (2012 – 2015). More than half of these companies experience increased sales and value added on a yearly basis in this period. From 2012 to 2015, companies affiliated with Siva’s incubators and business parks generated 37,3 billion added value in total.
In 2016, Siva introduced new guidelines for distribution of funding. Simultaneously, the programme was strengthened with 35 billion kroner. This, combined with a professionalization of the companies, has paid off.
– The last couple of years, we have expanded the variety of our services offered to start-ups in the Bergen region remarkably. We have increased the number of memberships of our incubation programme to 26 so that more promising start-ups than earlier will gain access to our tailored consultancy. We established the innovation community of T41, where 20 start-ups are located. A natural next step for many of these companies would be to apply for a membership of our incubation programme, says Hilde Indresøvde, manager of incubation and acceleration at Bergen Teknologioverføring.
In 2017, Siva’s incubation and business park programme includes 35 incubators and 39 business parks.
Here, you will find Siva’s press release on the great results.