Where ambition bursts into opportunity

Innokite is a dynamic incubator program designed to support knowledge-intensive startups in transforming innovative ideas into impactful, scalable businesses. Through a combination of tailored learning modules, expert mentorship, and a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem, Innokite empowers researchers, students, and graduates to address global challenges through entrepreneurship.

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Innokite is open to researchers, students, graduates, and early-stage entrepreneurs with knowledge-intensive ideas. Whether you're just starting or looking to scale your venture, our tailored programs are designed to meet your needs.

Our startup facilitation programme is delivered in a two-tiered structure that allows you to choose the pace and content of your learning and development. The Incubation Tier provides interactive workshops and activities that develop your entrepreneurial mindset and skills and deepen your knowledge of what it takes to build an idea into a business. This community-driven incubation phase also fosters collaboration and complementary skilled team formation. For those who are ready to take the next leap, the Acceleration Tier takes a flexible, modular approach with tailored learning modules (‘Bursts’) allowing startups to engage with focused support at critical stages of their development.

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Joining the incubator gives you access to the space, tools, and activities of the incubator for one year. After a year, you will join our alumni community and remain an important part of the ecosystem.

That’s what we are here for! You do not need to have experience as an entrepreneur to join the incubator, and we also welcome you if you do.

You need ambition, commitment, and an innovative idea in a knowledge-intensive field, along with an interest in growing within a supportive and community-driven environment. Head to the application page and either book a meeting with our Head of Incubator, Richard Rushby, to find out whether the incubator is a good fit for your ambitions, or simply fill in the application form on the page.

Innokite does not provide funding to founders or companies in our startup facilitation programme. What we do provide is a gateway to networking with the important players in the startup ecosystem of the north. Innokite is a key part of that ecosystem, and when you join our programme you get access to trainers and mentors who can be valuable points of contact for your company—if you show yourself to be dedicated, diligent, and driven.

To ensure accessibility for all, all workshops and activities are delivered in English, and the online platforms we use for the programme are also in English. Mentors come from a variety of backgrounds, however, so should the mentor speak your preferred language it is of course not mandatory that these meetings be in English.

Innokite is designed to support people with knowledge-intensive research and ideas that are innovative and have the potential to be built into scalable businesses. As every idea is different, we assess this on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the level of idea development, and whether what we can offer is right for you. If we don’t think it is a match, we will point you in the direction of other ecosystem stakeholders who may be able to help.

Does this sound like you or your idea? If you are unsure, you can head to the application page and either book a meeting with our Head of Incubator, Richard Rushby, to find out whether the incubator is a good fit for your ambitions, or simply fill in the application form on the page.

Our focus is knowledge-intensive, innovative ideas. The Incubate Tier is designed to give you a grounding in the entrepreneurial mindset and skills you will need to develop your idea. In the Accelerate Tier, the learning modules (‘Bursts’) are tailored to Knowledge Domain (Digital/DeepTech, MedTech/HealthTech, and Energy Transition/CleanTech) and Approach (early-stage or late-stage Spin-in/Licensing, Spin-out, and Impact Entrepreneurship), so you can take the skills you have developed in the Incubate Tier and apply them in sector-specific learning and development.

Innokite has an extensive regional and international network, and we connect startups to co-founders, mentors, and subject matter experts as well as possible customers and investors. We can also connect startups with research groups at the University and beyond for knowledge-intensive collaborations.

Upon completing the Accelerate Tier, startups gain access to our investor network, including local angel investors, regional funding bodies, and the NOM. Funding is not guaranteed and will depend on your startup’s performance and development.

Becoming a part of Innokite and developing your idea is a weekly commitment, but there is not an expected number of hours that you are required to be at the incubator each week, nor is it mandatory to attend all sessions and activities in the Incubation Tier. Likewise, the workshops and activities that comprise the Incubation Tier do not take a consistent number of hours per week. However, you will get out what you put in, and we recommend that you are working on your idea each week and dedicating consistent hours to being a part of the incubator.

Workshops and activities take place at the Innokite incubator in Groningen’s Zernike Campus or at other sites across the city of Groningen. To attend these events, you need to be there in person, there is no online component.