IPN Business Accelerator
About this good practice
The Accelerator fosters innovative tech-based firms by improving their internationalization capabilities and increasing their technological intensity.
Resources needed
The infrastructure costed a total of 8.2M€. The annual budget to run the Business Accelerator is around 400K€. This amount includes personnel costs (5 people, mainly with Business Administration/Economic background), electricity, maintenance, cleaning, communication, travelling and other services.
Evidence of success
In 2022, companies located in the Accelerator achieved the following aggregate
indicators:
Turnover: 100M€
Exports: 79%
Invest in R&D: 10%
Employees: +1000
According to the financial data available, IPN-Accelerator companies registered the following indicators average growth (between the year they came into the Accelerator and the last year available):
Turnover: 370%
Exports: 1905%
Employees: 189%
At the moment, IPN is the headquarters of two Portuguese unicorns, Feedzai and Talkdesk.
Potential for learning or transfer
This good practice is transferable for all regions because it fills a gap in the Innovation Cycle that you will find almost everywhere (please read Problem Addressed in the “Detailed information on the practice” section). There is an opportunity to offer a second stage Incubator (Business Accelerator) so that the startups can keep growing their business, invest in R&D and internationalize their business. Our experience proves that after this Acceleration period (up to 6 years) the startups actually become scale-ups and achieve financial independency. We highlight the following key success factors:
- Proximity to the Business Incubator and the University Campus (walking distance if possible)
- Strong soft-landing networks worldwide
- Provide technical support mainly in funding, internationalization and innovation
The most suitable entities for transferring this best practice are Business Incubators, mainly those who are University affiliated.
