//History

Since 1997 more than 50 new ventures have been formed out of the unique Encubation® model. Read more about the history of the collaboration below.

The Encubation History

Encubator came about as a result of four years of experiences from Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship. The school was founded in 1997 by Mats Lundqvist and Sören Sjölander, at the Department of Technology Management and Economics at Chalmers University of Technology. The main pedagogy was built upon arranged partnerships between inventors with ideas and students with the drive to become entrepreneurs. Since the start, there has been a dual mission of developing entrepreneurs while creating new ventures.

In 2001, Encubator was founded by Ingvar Andersson of Chalmersinvest and Mats Lundqvist as a Chalmers subsidiary. The main rationales behind Encubator were to professionalize the venture creation process linked to Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship and attract more financial support and investments, while also improving the entrepreneurial learning.

In 2005 the BIO TRACK (formerly known as GIBBS) was founded by Boo Edgar and Mats Lundqvist to build stronger relationships with bioscience research areas at Chalmers and the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg. GIBBS pioneered the attraction of international students as a preparation for the so-called Bologna system. This system, operating since 2007, has meant an expansion into two year international Masters’ programmes, international recruitment and more diverse selection of elective courses.

Chalmersinvest was the main financier of Encubator during its first four years and since 2001, Innovationsbron has been a key financier. In 2005, the structure of Encubator changed from annual investment funds to a holding company and an incubation company to strive for a balance between public grants and investment money.

Even though capabilities have improved substantially since the start of the first school of entrepreneurship, Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship, in 1997, the two main missions remain; to educate entrepreneurs and to create new knowledge-based companies. Today, Encubator is well-positioned to further develop a future-oriented incubator process, Encubation, being a professional commercial actor embedded into Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship as well as well-connected with the research and innovation systems of Sweden and abroad.