The incubation /acceleration programme
BusinessRunway
Our acceleration programme called BusinessRunway is the continuation of many activities of the Technology Centre of the CAS (TC) in supporting start-up companies – the so-called incubators within the capital city of Prague. Accelerator programme services are newly classified in TC activities and emphasize rapid and intensive development of a limited number of start-up companies for 1-2 years, when it is proven that a company is able to make profit, or the company closes down without unnecessary high sunk costs.
In addition to the basic services, which include rental and related services, TC offers business modelling support - setting a business model, technical and technological support, support for the establishment of the project team, etc. A capital contribution or a loan may be a part of the support. Basic businesses support that saves time and costs, is provided to companies especially by following triple-fulfilment:
- Premises and shared services (shared equipped offices with facilities and IT infrastructure, office supplies, conference centre facilities, etc.)
- Business consulting (accounting, tax, duty to inform the public administration, selected legal issues, marketing and PR, financing)
- Expert advice (use of professional capacities of TC - issues of intellectual property rights protection, knowledge transfer, partnering)
The first company in BusinessRunway programme was Space Systems Czech, the start-up software and systems engineering company specializing in high reliability systems in wide range of industries such as space, medical, nuclear and moving machinery. After four years of successful incubation, when one founding member grew up to 15 employees with a turnover of almost 900 k EUR, the company left the incubation programme at the end of 2019. (Today HULD company.)
Another accelerated company in this programme has been Stratosyst - the young Czech technology start-up in the fast-growing segment of pseudo-satellite (so-called Near Space and High-Altitude - HAPS). Project was created with purpose to develop and commercialize unique long time position keeping HAPS for telecommunication, navigation, Earth and space observation, and also for academia and government.
The acceleration programme builds on the already completed project Innovation centre and business incubator, see the text below.
The TC had, together with ČKD Group, and a German partner, successfully realized the reconstruction of an old factory hall in Prague 9 to a business incubator and an innovation centre. It represented the first joint utilization of a brownfield by partners from the business and academic sectors of the Czech Republic. The incubator operated from 2008 till 2014, when the successful and long-term self-financed project withdrew to the needs of the Howden International Holdings, a new foreign owner of ČKD manufacturing facility.
The resident firms were offered not only office and laboratory-space rental but also a comprehensive package of consulting (legal, accounting, tax, financial) and administrative services. The fact that the incubator was almost 100 percent-occupied was an evidence
of the high interest firms had in using it. In total, about 120 innovative companies passed through the incubator, of which over 90% survived the initial business phase.
