New regulations lead to students and employees behind start-ups having to raise starting capital. This causes the number of new start-ups to decline slightly in 2019, compared to the record set in 2018, where a total of 87 new companies were founded. Last year, 76 start-ups were founded by employees or students at DTU—equivalent to one or two new companies a week.
The development must be seen in the light of the change in the scheme for entrepreneurship companies—IVS—in 2019, so it is no longer possible to set up a company with a capital injection of one Danish krone. Employees and students have therefore been referred to either setting up personal companies or establishing a limited partnership with a starting capital of DKK 40,000.
As the previous IVS scheme only ended on 15 April, 38 per cent of the new start-ups managed to register as an IVS in 2019. A further 20 per cent of the new companies are set up as personally owned companies, while 33 per cent of companies were established as private limited companies, APS. The majority of the private limited companies were founded by DTU employees—while students account for a total of 10 of them.
"We are pleased that so many have succeeded in setting up a private limited company. It is testimony to the seriousness and solidity of the projects."
Marianne Thellersen
“It’s great that the students have been able to raise the necessary capital,” says Marianne Thellersen Director for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Senior Vice President, DTU.
“We are pleased that so many have succeeded in setting up a private limited company. It is testimony to the seriousness and solidity of the projects—important signals to send to business partners and investors,” she says.
The many new companies are growing out of DTU’s innovation environment across the entire academic spectrum.
For example, the start-up Defudger has developed a technology that can detect manipulation of digital content in images, video, and sound— increasingly a feature of fake news in the media.
And CysBio, one of several new biotech companies, has developed a new production method to get microorganisms to produce eelgrass acid. The acid contains so-called sulphated aromatic molecules that can be included in ship paint, medicine, and food—which can then be produced in controlled biological processes.