ARCC Futures: What is a Business Incubator?

Based in Cambridge in the United Kingdom, here at ARCC Innovations we research, we design, we problem solve, we develop, we build and we continuously improve. We also mentor, we assist and we look to realise the objectives of those with the same vision and ambition.

With almost a decade of experience, we understand the business landscape for new start-ups is a difficult one to traverse, but more than that is a brilliant idea and strategy can be undone because it lacks the critical conditions necessary to bring it to life.

Owned by a team who have achieved great success and now want to help others, ARCC was set up to provide start-ups with these conditions, since establishing itself as a leading business incubator in South Cambridgeshire’s ‘Silicon Fen.’

Indeed, this part of ARCC’s mission: by encouraging a thriving community of like-minded British businesses through our capacity as an incubator facility, ARCC is assisting start-ups that have chosen to develop in the UK rather than elsewhere, helping to keep cutting-edge product design and engineering in Britain.

But what does this assistance entail exactly?

Indeed, the term ‘business incubator’ is regularly thrown about the start-up community today, but its practicalities and varieties are less often explained.

Essentially, a business incubator is a company that provides services to smaller, growing businesses that are looking to develop from the start-up stage. These services include office space, access to facilities, administrative assistance, investment and commercial mentoring.

The incubator model started experimentally in North America in the late 1950s but really began to take root among the wider business community in the 1980s. Since then many different types of incubators have emerged in the 21st-century, some attached to academic institutions, venture capital firms or, like ARCC, as non-profit development initiatives.

Alongside the services offered by business incubators, there are many other natural advantages to the model, including collaboration between start-ups on site.

This is a particular boon for business administration and project co-development. The ARCC Coat Stand, for example, was one of many joint efforts between the engineers at ARCC Bikes and the designers of Studio 17. Likewise were the Abington and Rosemont bikes the result of extensive collaboration between ARCC Bikes and former ARCC-based business, Toad Cycles.

ARCC Futures, our incubator program, is all about investing in tomorrow. We have several small businesses based at our Cambridgeshire campus, including Studio 17, Node Audio, Mannequino and A Waite Design, to which we have provided guidance, mentoring, resources and facilities, giving them the start they need to help launch their business and product.

Alongside the aforementioned businesses, we are always looking for new entrepreneurs and start-up businesses who would benefit from our help and the collaborative environment offered here at ARCC.

Unlike some other programs, however, ARCC Innovations sadly cannot serve any and all start-ups looking to grow. Therefore, entrepreneurs who wish to become part of ARCC must first apply for admission and then pass a rigorous appraisal. Nevertheless, if you believe you have a feasible business proposition, and ARCC sounds like the place where your business could flourish, then please submit your interest here, and we hope to welcome you to the ARCC family.