Business incubators are organisations that provide support to start-up and early stage businesses through the provision of facilities, mentoring and coaching, training, networking and seed capital financing. The first business incubator is thought to have been established in Batavia, New York in 1959 within an abandoned Massey Ferguson tractor factory.
Despite this early start the evolution of business incubators really took off during the 1980s. For example, in the United States the number of business incubators grew from a mere 12 in 1980, to around 1,100 by 2003.
