Top Startup Accelerators & Incubators in Copenhagen, Denmark
Copenhagen might be famous for its picture-perfect canals, impeccable design aesthetic, and hygge lifestyle, but beneath that cozy exterior beats the heart of one of Europe's most dynamic startup ecosystems. This city of bicycles and wind turbines has quietly transformed into a powerhouse of Nordic innovation, where sustainability isn't just a buzzword but the foundation of a thriving entrepreneurial scene.
This guide explores the leading accelerators and incubators shaping Copenhagen's evolving startup landscape. These programs support domestic and international startups seeking to establish themselves in the Danish market.
Top 20 Startup Accelerators & Incubators in Copenhagen, Denmark
1. Accelerace
Target Audience: Early-stage startups with scalable potential
Niche: Sector-agnostic innovation
Accelerace has an impressive track record as one of the world's top 10 seed accelerators. It has supported over 800 startups through comprehensive pre-accelerator and accelerator programs. Accelerace offers a five-month equity-free program with a potential investment of up to DKK 500,000 from its VC fund. It creates powerful connections between promising ventures and the resources needed for sustainable growth.
2. Urbantech
Target Audience: Urban innovation startups
Niche: Smart city solutions
Urbantech focuses exclusively on developing innovative solutions for sustainable urban environments. It provides €15,000 in funding without taking equity, removing financial barriers for promising ventures. It delivers an intensive three-month acceleration program with specialized business coaching and mentoring. Urbantech creates pathways for implementing urban technology solutions in real-world settings.
3. Go Grow
Target Audience: Student entrepreneurs
Niche: Academic entrepreneurship
Go Grow operates as Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship's flagship acceleration program. It offers a comprehensive seven-month program tailored specifically for student entrepreneurs with working prototypes. The program focuses on ventures demonstrating international scaling potential and market readiness and creates bridges between academic innovation and commercial success.
4. Startup Wise Guys
Target Audience: Sustainability-focused startups
Niche: Sustainable innovation
Startup Wise Guys delivers substantial support for ventures addressing sustainability challenges. It provides up to €80,000 in combined cash (€50,000) and program value (€30,000). It offers a flexible five-month hybrid program combining onsite intensive sessions with online support. This creates opportunities for sustainability ventures to achieve meaningful scale and impact.
5. Futurebox
Target Audience: Deep technology ventures
Niche: Advanced technology commercialization
Futurebox is a specialized deep tech incubator that creates a community of technical innovators. It provides a substantial €135,000 funding package for selected ventures with significant potential and offers an extended 20-month intensive business coaching and technical mentoring program. Futurebox creates an environment where complex technological innovations can achieve commercial viability.
6. Copenhagen Fintech
Target Audience: Financial technology startups
Niche: Fintech innovation
Copenhagen Fintech specializes in supporting early-stage fintech ventures that are changing the financial sector. It provides customized support addressing the unique challenges of financial technology development. It offers free office space and extensive networking opportunities with established financial institutions. It creates a robust ecosystem connecting fintech innovation with industry adoption.
7. Nordea // Accelerace Matchmaking Network
Target Audience: Investment-ready startups
Niche: Investor connections
Nordea // Accelerace Matchmaking creates exclusive opportunities for selected startups to access capital. It facilitates direct pitching connections with Nordea's Private Banking and Business Banking clients. It provides specialized preparation, ensuring ventures are investment-ready for sophisticated investors. It also creates efficient pathways between promising startups and potential capital sources.
8. BioInnovation Institute Venture Lab
Target Audience: Life sciences startups
Niche: Biotech and healthcare innovation
BioInnovation Institute delivers specialized support for newly established life sciences ventures. It provides comprehensive resources addressing the unique challenges of biotech development. It offers access to specialized laboratory facilities and scientific expertise. It creates an environment where complex life science innovations can achieve commercial potential.
9. Beyond Beta
Target Audience: Scaling-ready ventures
Niche: Growth acceleration
Beyond Beta helps promising startups prepare for rapid scaling and market expansion. It offers a structured online pre-accelerator program that establishes strong business foundations. It provides industry-specific incubator and accelerator programs tailored to different sectors. Beyond Beta creates clear pathways for ventures to achieve significant growth and market impact.
10. Female Founders Incubator
Target Audience: Women entrepreneurs
Niche: Female entrepreneurship
Female Founders Incubator delivers a specialized four-month program for first-time female founders. It focuses specifically on Denmark-based women entrepreneurs with innovative and scalable ideas. Through targeted support, it addresses unique challenges faced by women in entrepreneurship. By empowering female business leaders, it creates a more diverse startup ecosystem.
11. Symbion
Target Audience: Knowledge-intensive startups
Niche: Research-based innovation
Symbion operates as one of Denmark's oldest and most established innovation environments. It provides comprehensive facilities and support services for knowledge-intensive businesses, co-working spaces, laboratories, and specialized equipment for technical ventures. Symbion creates a collaborative environment where science and business expertise combine effectively.
12. The Kitchen
Target Audience: Food technology startups
Niche: Food innovation
The Kitchen specializes in accelerating innovative ventures within the food and beverage sector. Backed by the Roskilde Festival Foundation, it brings creative energy to food innovation. It provides specialized facilities and industry connections for culinary technology development and creates sustainable food system transformation opportunities through entrepreneurship.
13. Digital Hub Denmark
Target Audience: Digital technology startups
Niche: Digital innovation
Digital Hub Denmark is a public-private partnership fostering digital innovation. It connects startups with established corporations, researchers, and public institutions. It offers resources focused on artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and cybersecurity. It creates a collaborative environment, strengthening Denmark's position as a digital frontrunner.
14. Innofounder
Target Audience: Recently graduated entrepreneurs
Niche: Early-stage innovation
Innofounder operates as Innovation Fund Denmark's program for new graduate entrepreneurs. It provides a 12-month funding and support package worth approximately €50,000. It offers specialized mentorship to help graduates transform ideas into viable businesses. In this way, it creates a bridge between academic knowledge and entrepreneurial application.
15. Scion DTU
Target Audience: Science and technology startups
Niche: Deep technology commercialization
Scion DTU is the science and technology incubator of the Technical University of Denmark. It provides specialized facilities, including laboratories and technical workshops, for development. It offers direct access to researchers and technical expertise from Denmark's leading technical university. Scion DTU creates an environment where advanced scientific knowledge translates into commercial ventures.
16. CSE Incubator
Target Audience: Student and recent graduate entrepreneurs
Niche: Academic entrepreneurship
CSE Incubator delivers Copenhagen Business School's incubator program for student ventures. It provides offices, meeting rooms, and event spaces dedicated to entrepreneurial development. It offers specialized workshops and mentorship from business faculty and successful entrepreneurs. It creates a supportive environment for students to develop business skills while building ventures.
17. SingularityU Nordic
Target Audience: Exponential technology startups
Niche: Future technologies
SingularityU Nordic is the Nordic chapter of Singularity University's global innovation ecosystem. It focuses on startups leveraging exponential technologies to address global challenges. It provides access to cutting-edge thinking and resources in future-focused technologies and creates connections to a global network of technology pioneers and thought leaders.
18. Climate-KIC Nordic Accelerator
Target Audience: Climate technology startups
Niche: Climate innovation
Climate-KIC Nordic delivers the Nordic branch of Europe's most prominent climate innovation initiative. It provides funding, mentorship, and resources for startups tackling climate challenges. It offers connections to a pan-European network of climate innovators and potential partners. It creates pathways for scaling climate solutions to achieve meaningful environmental impact.
19. Rockstart
Target Audience: Energy and AgriFood startups
Niche: Sustainable sector innovation
Rockstart specializes in supporting startups in the energy and agricultural technology sectors. It offers equity investment alongside comprehensive acceleration programs and resources. It provides access to industry partners and potential customers in target sectors and creates opportunities for meaningful growth in sustainable energy and food systems.
20. Talent Garden Rainmaking
Target Audience: Digital innovators
Niche: Digital transformation
Talent Garden Rainmaking is one of Copenhagen's premier innovation hubs for digital ventures. It provides a collaborative workspace for digital technology development, offers community events and programs connecting entrepreneurs with resources and partners, and creates an environment fostering digital skills development and business innovation.
AcceleratorApp's Closing Thoughts on Startup Accelerators and Incubators in Copenhagen, Denmark
What makes Copenhagen's startup ecosystem special isn't just the generous funding or the picture-perfect co-working spaces—it's the distinctly Danish approach to innovation. In a country where "janteloven" (the cultural norm discouraging individual success over collective well-being) once prevailed, entrepreneurship has been reimagined with a uniquely Danish twist: success measured not just in exits and valuations but in positive impact.
As Copenhagen continues to evolve from design capital to startup capital, it isn't trying to be the next Silicon Valley—it's creating something distinctly Nordic, where innovation comes with social responsibility built in. After all, building something sustainable in the city that gave the world both LEGO and wind energy giants isn't just good business—it's simply the Danish way.