• History of Business Incubation
• How to join the incubation programs
• Case Studies 

What's business incubation
Business incubation are programs designed to accelerate the successful development of entrepreneurial companies through an array of business support resources and services, developed and orchestrated by incubator management and offered both in the incubator and through its network of contacts. Incubators vary in the way they deliver their services, in their organizational structure, and in the types of clients they serve.

History of incubation
The Batavia Industrial Center, commonly known as the first U.S. business incubator, opened in Batavia, N.Y., in 1959.

But the concept of providing business assistance services to early-stage companies in shared facilities did not catch on with many communities until at least the late 1970s.

In 1980, approximately 12 business incubators were operating in the United States – all of them in the industrial Northeast, which had been hard-hit by plant closures in the previous decade.

Throughout the 1980s, business incubation industry growth was swift, as a few farsighted individuals saw the limitations of common economic development strategies that focused solely on industry attraction and large corporate expansions. As others began to recognize the value of creating and expanding new businesses to sustain local economies, more communities developed business incubators to support these new ventures. Three major activities drove industry growth during the period:

In the mid-1980s, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) strongly promoted incubator development, holding a series of regional conferences to disseminate information about incubation. The SBA also published a newsletter and several incubator handbooks during the period. As a result of these activities, incubator development grew from about 20 openings annually in 1984 to more than 70 in 1987.

Recognizing the need for information sharing within this new growth industry, business incubation leaders formed the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) in 1985 to provide training and tools for assisting start-up and fledgling firms and to serve as a clearinghouse for information on incubator management and development issues. The association’s membership has grown from approximately 40 members in its first year to approximately 1600 in 2006.

Incubation in China
China’s first technology business incubator was born 24 years ago. In 1987 the first technology business incubator was established in Wu Han city named Dong Hu Business Pioneers Center.

China has established a fairly comprehensive business incubator system, with 548 incubators so far, ranked second highest number in the world after the United States. In 2009, development history of China’s incubators, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology has played extremely important roles of guidance, organization and promotion.

Currently, HKCTC has specialized in helping emerging companies in creative industries and innovative technologies related business to develop successfully, which always keep good relationship with local governments of mainland China, getting access to the important investment programs supported by the government.

If you are an investor who's seeking for creative investment programs, please click here for more program details;

If you have creative ideas or innovative technologies and want to be the incubatee, please go through the above guideline, and contact us with any questions at secretariat@hkctc.org.