Industry Leaders Launch Project to Define a Paradigm shift in Start-up Incubation

Gothenburg, Sweden – Today, EIT Health is launching a project to explore requirements for establishing a new and unique paradigm in start-up incubation. AstraZeneca and Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) will join as industry participants with a goal to include medical device and diagnostics industry verticals in the future. Also participating are HealthCap, a European investor and company creator investing globally in life sciences investing globally in life science and Vectura, a company that creates physical space and facilities that foster progress and innovation. The incubator aims to support and guide start-up companies by providing access to key success drivers, including access to capital, relevant growth capabilities, scientific and technical expertise to validate their direction, and provide a collaborative environment to promote innovation. The exploratory project is co-funded by Vinnova, with the goal of setting up the physical infrastructure for a future start-up incubator within GoCo Health Innovation City in Mölndal, Sweden.

Innovation in life science is a complex process, where future products and healthcare solutions increasingly involve the convergence of different technologies. Currently, there is a lack of a comprehensive cross-sector industrial infrastructure that supports and develops exciting and promising start-ups creating groundbreaking, sustainable innovations in the health sector.

The initiative will connect industry domain knowledge and expertise to the existing incubation ecosystems. By combining incubation and venturing with industry’ domain expertise and infrastructure, the aim is to create a uniquely differentiated environment for growth in the health care/tech sector. A key component will be the connection of the established incubation ecosystem to industry, and the platform will introduce a novel venturing setup that is expected to increase the probability of success for start-up companies. This approach will simultaneously reduce the financial and technical risks associated with deep-tech development, promote rapid innovation, and facilitate the emergence of new, sustainable life science companies. The success of such start-ups will contribute to tech convergence and innovation across the entire ecosystem and generate capital appreciation for investors.

The Inspiration for this initiative draws from AstraZeneca’s BioVentureHub concept for scaling up life science companies. The partnering philosophy will be based on non-competitive complementarity - by pooling expertise from non-competing partners, the aim is to promote knowledge sharing and open collaboration. The portfolio strategy will reflect the same philosophy, with an absence of competition to encourage openness and drive innovation.

The platform aims to work in synergy with the established Nordic incubator landscape, providing opportunities for start-ups to continue their growth journey with additional support. The selection process will be open to start-ups outside of existing incubator frameworks and those already active within a local incubator, where maintaining close ties with their original environment will be an added strength. While co-location within a physical space will not be mandatory, the potential for synergy based on co-location will be a key component, with the initial physical incubator space planned to be located within GoCo Health Innovation City in Mölndal (established by 2026). In summary, the joint initiative aims to create a holistic solution to support life science start-ups by providing access to capital, capabilities, competencies and collaboration in a novel incubator framework. This is expected to increase the success rate, time to market and value of the enrolled start-up companies. The first step, for which the parties have now received co-funding from Vinnova, will be to research, analyse, and design an implementation strategy to establish the platform and transform the start-up journey.

“It's about creating a culture and philosophy of open collaboration and knowledge sharing by bringing together the expertise of non-competitive partners. We have done this very successfully for scale-up companies, and now we want to take a similar approach to identify and support all the innovative and sustainable start-ups in the health industry out there,” says Magnus Björsne, Head of AstraZeneca BioVenture Innovation Unit and CEO of AstraZeneca BioVentureHub.

“HealthCap is devoted to supporting the life science eco system. We hope that our international experience of creating and supporting life science companies is helpful during the establishment of this exciting project,” says Johan Christenson, Senior partner with HealthCap.

"The new innovations in healthcare technology are increasingly using digital solutions, often to improve the patient's experience of care. This new incubator will be built on AWS, leveraging AWS’ experience in digital technology and knowledge of cross-industry technical solutions."

“We are thrilled to be part of this collaborative effort to establish a groundbreaking incubator for healthcare and life science startups,” said Guy Spigelman, AWS EMEA Healthcare and Life Sciences Startups Lead.

“AWS is committed to empowering innovators with the technology, expertise and resources they need to transform their visionary ideas into real-world solutions that create clinical value. This new incubator has the potential to be a game-changer for founders in the Nordics region.”

“By bringing together university incubators throughout the Nordic region, this initiative will connect start-ups to industry with support from the leading innovation force in Europe. EIT Health is proud to be managing this as it has significant potential not only for the Swedish life science ecosystem, but for the rest of Europe and beyond. By adding an international outreach, we can further accelerate and scale the enrolled companies and subsequently look to ensure the best innovative solutions reach markets and healthcare settings faster for the benefit of patients and citizens,” says Jean-Marc Bourez, CEO at EIT Health.

“We are proud to be part of this ambitious project, further elevating Sweden as a leading life science nation, by creating a start-up framework that can be replicated and scaled across Europe,” says Annika Szabo-Portela, Managing Director of EIT Health Scandinavia.

“It has been a great pleasure to work with AstraZeneca, AWS, HealthCap and Vectura on this journey and to get where we are today. With co-funding from Vinnova we are now able to take this initiative to the next level and create the blueprint for a truly impactful incubator,” says Per Horn, Regional Manager at EIT Health Scandinavia.

The initiative is partially funded by Vinnova, Sweden's innovation agency. It will be based at GoCo Health Innovation City in Mölndal, next to AstraZeneca's research and development facility. The incubator will initially support approximately 15 start-up companies. The plan is to launch physical laboratories in 2026 in the GoCo Active Lab, which is currently under construction.

Creating space for innovation is the focus for the real estate company Vectura’s strategy and the unique offering of this platform will combine all the strengths of industry, the innovative power of start-ups with the infrastructure that Vectura is experienced in creating.

"At Vectura, we are dedicated to creating environments where innovation can thrive. By partnering with this initiative, we aim to provide not only the physical infrastructure but also the strategic foundation that will empower start-ups. This incubator will serve as a catalyst for breakthrough innovations in life science and technology, and we are proud to contribute our expertise in real estate to support the success of these emerging companies. Together, we can create spaces that foster collaboration, growth, and long-term impact,” says Joel Ambré CEO of Vectura.