Welcome to the UCB incubator program
We partner with healthcare’s most talented start-ups, to generate pioneering innovations that enable patients with severe and chronic diseases to enjoy better, healthier lives.
Welcome to the UCB incubator program
We partner with healthcare’s most talented start-ups, to generate pioneering innovations that enable patients with severe and chronic diseases to enjoy better, healthier lives.
Stronger together
Passionate about sustainability, we want to support your growth in order to create innovation and value that puts patients first. From increasing access to medicine to reducing social inequities, together we’ll be a force for good in the world.
Let’s help patients live the lives they choose, today and in the future.
Why choose us?
Unique insight
We match you to patient unmet needs, friction points and validated market opportunities to help de-risk and accelerate your product and business. Product-market fit is easier to reach when you have access to insider knowledge and the full force of strong scientific expertise behind you. Moreover, with UCB’s presence in over 36 markets, you’ll have a chance to access a global network in healthcare.
Expert mentorship
We help you with validation and direction through business and tech mentorship and expert feedback. You will get exposure to subject matter experts, who have a deep understanding of disease areas and friction points as well as decades of collective clinical and regulatory expertise supported by market research and thousands of datapoints.
Personalised pathway
Co-creation is in the DNA of our incubator. We recognize that each startup has different needs, which is why we propose a tailored approach through a pre-incubation phase to support you. In this period, we will co-create a program relevant to the problem you are solving, with personalized business and operational support. At the end of the pre-incubation period, you will have the opportunity to gain 6-months of ongoing support on co-created terms.
We want to help accelerate patient value creation and delivery by supporting you with a tailored program asking for 0% equity commitment.
Who should apply?
If this sounds like you, then you should apply to our program
You are driven by purpose
We want to support innovative ventures that will have a real impact on patients, society and the world, from enabling better access to medicine to promoting ethical and environmentally friendly values.
You are focused on proving the viability and feasibility of your product
Although you may have some way to go, any early proof points that your approach has an impact on the key friction points and be commercially viable will definitely be a plus.
You are an early-stage team with bold ambitions
We are looking for relatively early-stage innovative technologies that address one or more of the patient frictions points we have identified. You should already have a team that has the potential to deliver success, and you may have already raised investment, and we will help fill in some of the gaps.
You value the help we can offer you to scale your business faster
If you need support in a range of areas to help you scale faster, such as business modelling, branding, marketing, raising investment, understanding and proving the real benefit of your technology within patient populations and the healthcare environment, legal, compliance or internationalisation in the digital health space, you should definitely be applying to our program.
You want to achieve global reach
It doesn’t matter where in the world you are based, but over time you do need to be interested in addressing a global market, and your technology and team should have that capability and ambition.
Your pathway
Step 1
Application
Start your journey by giving us some key information about the solution that you’d like to put forward.
Step 2
Matchmaking
Upon validation, our team will reach out to you to schedule an introductory call. We will discuss the problem you solve, your team and your technology to enable us to match your solution with existing opportunities.
Step 3
Phase I - Validation
In this pre-incubations stage, we will co-create a plan for collaboration and invite you to pitch it to a panel of UCB subject matter experts, who will make a decision on which ventures will advance into the next phase.
Step 4
Phase II - Incubation
If you are selected, you will be offered a place in our 6-month incubation program.