The first incubators appeared in the last century. They have come a long way from university laboratories to stand-alone companies that are part of the global ecosystem. And now, large corporations (as once-universities) are launching their programs and are increasingly attracting startupers to a new and already joint business.
First experiences
The conceptual prototype of current business incubators is the Thomas Edison research complex . It was built in 1887 in New Jersey. It included chemical, physical, metallurgical and other laboratories, had a library and workshops. In it, Edison and colleagues developed prototypes of his inventions - for example, alkaline batteries and sound recorders. Later they were mass-produced at a nearby factory. In fact, Thomas Edison built the complex, within the framework of which he realized the full technological cycle: from the idea to the commercial launch.
Another prototype of a modern business incubator started seven years later, in 1894. It was formed on the basis of an ordinary laundry room, which one of the students at Cornell University decided to open to pay for his studies. After graduation, he sold his modest business to his junior colleagues, who, in turn, did the same. The cycle continued until 1910, when the new owners wanted to expand this enterprise.
Later, a non-profit company Student Agencies was formed on its basis. She began to provide infrastructure for students who want to start their own business, and today 200 people work there, and the annual revenue of startups passing through the organization’s programs exceeds $ 2.5 million.
Real incubators
The world's first full-fledged business incubator was the Batavia Industrial Center (BIC), founded in 1959. His story began in the city of Batavia (New York) on the site of a closed poultry farm. The empty premises of the enterprise were received by the management of real estate agent Joseph Mancuso, who needed to come up with their application. Then the unemployment rate in the city increased dramatically, so Mancuso decided to turn the abandoned facility into a "business growth center." He began to lease space at low rates for small companies and at the same time provided tenants with all kinds of support: from administrative services to consulting. In two years, BIC created more jobs for local residents than it did during the poultry farm.
Today, Joseph’s business is run by his sons. They expanded their father's business and operate four incubators in the United States.
Successful BIC experience in the United States began to spread in the late 1980s. As part of the small business support program, authorities opened business incubators in factories, warehouses, and even in old schools. They were non-profit - they were supported by the local administration, research institutes and universities. So in 1989 in Texas, one of the first modern business incubators appeared - Austin Technology Incubator - at the University of Austin.
Unsplash / Photo: HIVAN ARVIZU
For the first three years, the organization existed with funding from the state and the city’s Chamber of Commerce. But later she managed to attract private sponsors - over the past twenty years, the volume of investment in incubator projects amounted to $ 1.7 billion, and over the entire period of existence, 300 companies passed through it.
Acceleration programs
After the launch of the first Mosaic Internet browser in 1993, the growth of the technology companies market, known as the “dotcom boom”, began. It caused a surge in investor activity, and between 1999 and 2000, about 400 commercial business incubators were launched in the United States. In the early 2000s, interest in dotcoms subsided; investors temporarily lost interest in business incubators. But after two years, acceleration programs appeared.
They no longer provided for long-term support of projects and were immediately aimed at their multiple growth within a couple of months. Due to tight deadlines and bets on measurable performance indicators of enterprises, business accelerators quickly achieved results and attracted more and more investors and founders of startups. The first successful business accelerator is Y Combinator, which appeared in 2005. He offered short-term programs and seed investments - about $ 12 thousand for a 6 percent stake in the company - and temporary office space.
Unlike incubators through which 200-300 companies have been going through for decades, Y Combinator has released over 2 thousand startups to date, including such well-known projects as Reddit, Airbnb and Dropbox. 102 startups from among Y Combinator alumni are valued above $ 150 million. Only these 102 startups, excluding other graduates, created more than 50 thousand jobs and their total capitalization today exceeds $ 155 billion.
Following Y Combinator, other organizations began to appear. For example, in 2006, Techstars was opened in Colorado. He offered startups a three-month program and $ 6-18 thousand in start-up investments. According to the data for 2019, the accelerator has accepted more than 1,600 companies, the total capitalization of which is now $ 18 billion. This is taking into account the fact that less than 1% of startups that applied for the program fall in the Techstars program.
What is today
Over the past ten years, the number of accelerators has increased 10 times - from 16 to 170, and this is only in the United States. If we talk about the global market, then in 2016 Gust counted more than 570 accelerators. And there is reason to believe that over the past time their number continues to grow. This is due to the fact that the effectiveness of accelerators has attracted large corporations and international concerns to this area.
Unsplash / Photo: Annie Spratt
Their programs were launched by General Electric and BP . BMW , Ford (an affiliate program with Techstars) and Jaguar have similar programs - the latter produces about 50 startups a year.
Startup support programs have come a long way from university business incubators to acceleration programs of large IT companies, automakers and other corporations. Today, accelerators are one of the key components of the technological ecosystem. It can be expected that over time their number will continue to grow - including in developing countries .
Our Accelerator - StartupDrive
We at Gazprom Neft have our own accelerator - StartupDrive . The program is intended for startups in the areas of logistics, cargo transportation, online services for drivers, car sharing, infrastructure of gas stations and retail technologies, as well as other products related to the transport market.
At the beginning of the year, we already worked with five teams - a total of 200 startups participated in the selection. And now we are launching the kit into the second acceleration program. Residents are waiting for a three-month intensive - business curators will help companies refine their products and scale their sales.
The selection of participants will be held in an open format, it is enough to submit an application through the official website until December 20, 2019. Startups can participate remotely from any cities in Russia. In total, we will choose 10 teams for participation - we will publish the results on January 24, 2020.