Flourishing Start-up Scene

Medicon Valley biotech incubators

MV biotech incubators continue to support innovation in the life sciences sector through funding, coaching, and working space

SmiLe, BioInnovation Institute, DTU Skylab and Medeon are leading biotech incubators helping to progress innovative research and start-ups within the local region through a variety of facilities, services and programs

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

Established: 2018, a Novo Nordisk Foundation Initiative

Facility & Services: Lab space, funding

Programs: BI Studio (establishes spin-outs), Venture Lab (start-ups in early phase), Residence (office & lab space), Deep Tech Lab (quantum tech)

Location: DTU Campus, Lynby, Denmark

Established: 2013

Facility & Services: 5,500m², with labs, workshops, auditoriums, open spaces, project rooms, soft-funding, business acceleration

Programs: Various funding initiatives for students, researchers and start-ups

Location: Lund, Sweden

Established: 2007

Facility & Services: Coaching, lab & working space, networks, capital investment

Programs: Incubator (start-ups), bootcamp (business development), e-campus (entrepreneurship)

Location: Malmö, Sweden

Established: 1985

Facility & Services: Science Park including its own incubator and professional network programs; >100,000m² of space for life sciences operations, including lab space, offices, conferences, networks

Programs: Incubator for research and start-ups, and professional network programs

SmiLe

SmiLe, a leading venture hub based in Lund, has supported local and global innovation for the last 16 years

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
€841M* CAPITAL RAISED 2014-2024	21 IPOs & 5 M&As SINCE START	87 & 28 GRADUATED & PORTFOLIO COMPANIES	82% STILL GROWING	110 COMPANIES +1000 PEOPLE	39% FEMALE CEOS & FOUNDERS**

SmiLe continues to demonstrate its position as a significant catalyst for innovation in Europe through its recognition as a leading startup hub, CEO appointment to a government advisory group and partnership with big pharma

SmiLe recognized as one of Europe’s leading startup hubs by the Financial Times & Statista

The awards list of the top 125 hubs (out of 2,000 participants) across Europe confirms SmiLe as a key player in the startup ecosystem
Key criteria included alumni feedback, expert recommendations, and an analysis of the hub’s most successful startups

SmiLe’s CEO, Ebba Fåhraeus, appointed member of gov. life science advisory group

The group aims to increase coordination, exchange knowledge, provide insights into sector development and support implementation of the national LS strategy
The appointment confirms the value SmiLe brings in nurturing innovation and entrepreneurship within the country

AbbVie Scandinavian Golden Ticket program launched to promote medical innovation

The program provides one startup conducting research in AbbVie’s key areas with one year of access to business and research space at SmiLe’s site, the incubator program and business coaches
AAX Biotech, a Karolinska Institutet Innovations spin-out focusing on antibody-based drugs was named the 1st winner

BioInnovation Institute

BioInnovation, a Novo Nordisk Foundation Initiative, has been establishing spin-outs and start-ups in life sciences

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
€99M TOTAL BII FUNDING	€559M (€268M) EXTERNAL FUNDING RAISED BY BII (VENTURE LAB ALUMNI)	100 BII START-UPS TO DATE	56% (36%) START-UPS WITH 1ST-TIME FOUNDERS (VIA VENTURE LABS)

BII’s incubation programs have attracted interest from key pharma players and other venture firms in areas including obesity, women’s health, and oncology & autoimmunity

Embark becomes 1st exit in BII’s history with €471M acquisition by Novo Nordisk for obesity

The deal validates BII’s incubation of start-ups with potential, with Embark receiving a €1.3M boost during its residency in its Venture House program 2 years ago, despite low investment willingness in obesity
It also highlights the innovative ecosystem in Denmark, with research spun out from Novo and the University of Copenhagen in 2017

Innovation Panel and partnership with Ferring were established to accelerate women’s health

Women’s health (WH) remains a strategic focus area for BII, especially due to the limited research and expertise in this field
The Panel includes researchers and founders in WH to support paths to commercialization
Ferring has funded and incubated early-stage start-ups within WH, including FimmCyte that develops endometriosis treatments

BII Venture Lab’s ‘grad’ ComMIT launches with €16M financing for cancer and autoimmunity

The Aarhus University spin-out is pioneering a novel approach to activating the complement part of the immune system using its unique bispecific technology to selectively kill target cells
It was initially incubated in BII’s program and has now exited from Bioqube Ventures and Novo Holdings

Medeon

Medeon supports start-ups and scale-ups within pharmaceuticals, medical technology, biotechnology and healthcare

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
50+ COMPANIES	>3.7B SEK 2023 TOTAL TURNOVER FOR 15 MAJOR COMPANIES	40 YEARS TO BE CELEBRATED IN 2025

Medeon alumni and current incubator start-ups continue to raise capital in the areas of diagnostics, neuropathy and diabetes

SEK 105M raised to finance NDA submission of Ascelia’s MRI contrast agent, Orviglance

The achievement validates Medeon’s incubation of the alumni during start-up, raising SEK 60M, followed by an IPO in 2019
The technology itself originates from the Danish Herley Hospital
The planned NDA is based on positive Phase 3 data in which Orviglance significantly improved visualization of focal liver lesions

Clinical trial for oral TRPV1 antagonist in Type 2 diabetes to be supported by SEK 10M capital

The alumni has its roots in Sweden, where it was established in 2014
The company was established following use-patents that were spun off from Novo Nordisk in 2008, when the latter decided to focus on injectable peptide-based drugs

Peripheral neuropathy diagnostic, VibroSense Meter II, is injected with SEK 26M

Vibrosense Dynamics is a Sweden-based medical technology company, previously part of the incubation but still present at Medeon
It is developing a diagnostic tool to diagnose damage in the hands and feet
The recent capital will allow the company to market its tool in additional countries following previous capital raising of SEK 13M

DTU Skylab

DTU Skylab, part of the Danish Technology University, nurtures academic research from students, researchers and corporations

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
47 COMPANIES / ORGANIZATIONS IN LARGER COLLABORATIONS	360 STARTUP TEAMS SUPPORTED	81 BRAND NEW STARTUPS (2023)	160 UNIQUE TEAMS IN STARTUP PROGRAMS	33% FEMALE RESEARCHERS / STUDENTS IN STARTUP PROGRAMS

DTU improves its position as an academic institution, whilst its innovation program, DTU Skylab continues to support research in areas including dementia and osteoarthritis

WORLD UNIVERSITY
RANKINGS

DTU improved its position in the QS World University Rankings 2025

DTU moved up 12 places to number 109 in a list of the top 1,500 universities worldwide
The rankings aim to reflect the position of universities and reflect expectations of their performance for the next academic year

DTU startup DemensAI awarded Student Startup of the Year during 2024 Commemoration Day

DTU celebrated the previous year’s research, results, teaching, and student start-ups
DemensAI was awarded DKK 25,000 to progress its AI speech-based model for diagnosing cognitive decline
The model can detect nuances in patients’ speech and detect signs of Alzheimer’s with an accuracy of 93%

DTU Health Tech received DKK 5M from Lundbeck Foundation for osteoarthritis therapy

DTU Health Tech researcher, Ditte Jaehger PhD will use the funds to create an injection with a genomic medicine depot which can be injected directly into the knee
Funding will support an 18-month plan for maturation of the technology for presentation to potential investors