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www.biopharminternational.com Emerging Therapies 2022 eBook BioPharm International ® 31 BioBusiness and Innovation of the Republic of Lithuania decided to prov ide more t h a n €13 m i l l ion [US$13.6 m i l- lion] to life sciences startups' projects. In this case, Innovation Agency administers an initiative called 'Biotechnology industry development in Lithuania'," says Uždavinytė. At the end of 2021, companies were able to apply for financial support in Lithuania for their projects. Startups could receive up to €200,000 (US$209,000), and private companies could receive up to €500,000 (US$523,000), according to Uždavinytė. After evalu- ating applications, 25 of 43 different companies have received an overall €5.8 million (US$6.1 million) in financing, she adds. Sweden Karolinsk a Instit utet (K I) In novations Incubator supports life science start-ups. Focus is on evidence based human life science, mainly deep-tech compa- nies with a strong potential impact on society and major patient benefit. KI Innovations Incubator is financed by the state via the Vinnova Excellens pro- gram and Karolinska Institutet, and the incubation program involves both individual and group coach- ing and offers a broad range of education, events, professional networks, financing, expert competence in entrepreneurship and business development. The start-ups also have access to wet-labs and co-working space within the community. Although the life science business incubator only works with start-up companies, KI Innovations also encompasses early support and inspiration within a pre-incubator and academic innovation support pro- gram. Since the start, it has worked with more than 1800 projects and companies, and the return on in- vestment has been substantial. "We aim at having a diversity of start-ups, both sci- ence-heav y, long-reaching pharma companies and faster moving eHealth-based companies—these typ- ically comprise different types of founders/entrepre- neurs," says Christian Krog-Jensen, PhD, head Busi- ness Incubator at KI Innovations Dr. Krog-Jensen notes that KI Innovations aims to "use" success stories as learning cases, and some of the serial entrepreneur members are utilized in group discussions to share their experiences in de- veloping a start-up that is subsequently launched onto the market. "We are also putting in extra effort in inspiring women to apply to the incubator with their start-up, t h i s i s ke y to at t rac t i ng bot h m a le a nd fem a le entrepreneurs and investors to the environment," Krog-Jensen emphasizes. "We also demand that all companies work on sustainability, they are coached, has to build a forward directed plan, taking into ac- count their operational area." According to Krog-Jensen, the organization has brought onboard a set of experts within the relevant technological and legal areas to play important roles within the incubator environment. "A network of external business coaches has been employed by us, giving scalability and the possibility to meet the spe- cific demands of the great variation of start-ups. From a business perspective, we have, over the years, built up our industry experiences and personnel and have built a good network of investors and buyers/partners within pharma and healthcare," Krog-Jensen states. SmiLe Incubator, a life science business incuba- tor, is based in the life science hub of Lund, Sweden. Founded in 2007, this incubator aims to facilitate business success for startups and entrepreneurs who are involved in developing next-generation health- care and life science technologies. The organization has become an important national and international player in the life science startup space in the past five years. "Since the start, more than 100 startup com- panies have joined the incubator program, of which 86% are still growing, 20 companies have launched IPO's [initial public offerings], and five companies were merged or acquired," states Ebba Fåhraeus, CEO of SmiLe Incubator. "Since 2014, the incubator companies, together with alumni companies, have raised approximately €650 million (US$682 million) in venture capital. With diversity as one of our key success factors, we take great pride in the fact that some 50% of the founders and CEO's of our companies are women and that these women also raise 50% of the venture capital," emphasizes Fåhraeus. SmiLe´s offerings include business coaching by senior coaches who have been previously active in the life sciences industry (e.g., bio/pharmaceutical R&D, business development, marketing, governance, and finance); access to a large international network of investors and industry experts; access to a unique lab infrastructure consisting of 10 laboratories that house state-of-the-art instrumentation suitable for Among the advantages of an incubator are resources and skill sets offered to start-ups.