KTH Innovation is one of Europe’s leading startup hubs, offering innovation support to students and researchers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, a top technical university. Since its inception in 2007, KTH Innovation has built an internationally recognized innovation support system, helping students and researchers transform groundbreaking ideas into thriving startups.
KTH educates a wide range of engineers, architects, teachers, and researchers to lead the transformation to a sustainable, gender-equal world. The university offers nearly 100 programs, attracting around 17,000 students globally. KTH conducts excellent basic and applied research, currently ranking 73rd among 1,500 universities worldwide in the QS World University Rankings.
Since the start in 2007, KTH Innovation has built an internationally recognized innovation support system at the university.
STRONG IMPACT FOCUS
By offering free and confidential innovation support for students and researchers at the university, KTH Innovation contributes to European competitiveness by enabling the founding of innovative startups and giving its founders the tools they need to excel. The support includes all aspects necessary to go from idea to innovation, including business development coaching, access to funding, recruitment support, and support in the management of immaterial rights and patents. 400 teams with new ideas enter the support process every year. There is a strong focus on deep tech innovation, building on KTH Innovation’s nearly 20 years of experience of bringing advanced technology to market. Sustainability is another key area, with 85% of teams aiming to contribute to one or more of the Sustainable Development Goals.
KTH INNOVATION READINESS LEVEL
KTH Innovation excels in providing a structured environment for early-stage innovation. At the core of the coaching is the KTH Innovation Readiness Level TM model, a complete framework for guiding idea development and assessing idea status across key dimensions.
The model is available under a creative commons licence and is used by hundreds of organizations around the world, including Imperial College, Vinnova, and in the H&M Foundation’s Global Change Award, the world’s largest innovation challenge to decarbonize fashion, where KTH has been a partner since 2015.
PROGRAMS
KTH Innovation also runs a number of focused programs, ranging from the inspirational Discovery program, where researchers can learn the basics of innovation, to the flagship Pioneer program, built to accelerate deeptech innovation. Students benefit from the Ideate program, run in collaboration with SSE Business Lab, and the Launch program, where ambitious teams work side by side with the goal of reaching the market in 6-12 months. In the Brighter program, startup teams with global ambitions can get their first taste of the international market.
BRINGING TOGETHER INNOVATIVE RESEARCHERS AND EXPERIENCED ENTREPRENEURS
The Pioneer program, run by KTH Innovation & KTH Ventures, aims to create the ideal conditions for bringing breakthrough technologies to the world. The program addresses the specific needs of teams developing science-based innovations, focusing specifically on deeptech innovation.
The program brings together ambitious research teams from KTH and experienced entrepreneurs, so called Venture Builders, creating a space where potential co-founders can meet, collaborate, and form teams organically based on mutual vision and expertise.
STRONG FOCUS ON AI
AI permeates innovation at KTH, with an increasing number of students and researchers utilizing the technology to build new solutions that can contribute to solving big problems. The implementation of AI has been especially impactful among teams developing science-based technology, with AI speeding up the development within areas like diagnostics, energy technology, life science and more.
CREATING AN INCLUSIVE INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM
Increasing the number of female founders has been an important focus since 2016. Back then, the percentage of teams with female founders in KTH Innovation’s support process was a mere 16%. Today, after adapting a norm-critical mindset, changing communication, and tweaking programs and offers to be more inclusive, the number of teams with female founders is up to 40%.
EUROPE IN FOCUS
KTH Innovation maintains a strong focus on Europe, with one key example being membership in the Rise Europe network, uniting leading start-up ecosystem builders from 13 European countries to empower European start-ups to make a positive global impact.
KTH Innovation also works closely with industry, facilitating startup’s growth via targeted introductions and thematic events.
KTH INNOVATION COLLIDE
Four times per year, KTH Innovation invites the innovation community to campus for the event KTH Innovation Collide. Aimed at anyone curious about innovation, the event attracts 300-400 participants per time. Students, investors, founders, industry representatives, and researchers meet to hear from startups, get to know new people, and enjoy snacks and drinks.
IMPACT
Since the start in 2007, KTH Innovation has supported close to 5000 new ideas from students and researchers at KTH. Over 450 alumni companies are active today.
- 400 new ideas per year
- 5000 ideas supported since 2007
- 30% ideas are Deeptech
- 85% of teams supported aim to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals
- 450+ alumni companies
We bring together people from all over the world with different experiences and a strong drive to solve big problems. We work hard to create an open, creative and inclusive culture where people have the opportunity to make a real difference.
– Lisa Ericsson, Head of KTH Innovation –
