The Alba innovation centre in Scotland will open its new incubation unit with a full complement of companies this autumn.
The centre is intended for a mixture of hardware and software firms, high growth technology companies, said Alisdair Gunn, technology manager at the sister wireless incubation centre in Hillington, Glasgow.
The new building will be home to Elonics, Catalise, Guest Technologies Europe, Intelligent Earth, Safe Cities, 3c Environmental, Bitwise RT, eoLogic and Syngro.
Scottish Enterprise appointed Innovation Centres Scotland to run the site after running the Hillington innovation centre since 2000. Gunn’s wireless incubation centre is based on the Hillington site.
So far the wireless centre has recruited around 160 firms into its network of companies after being set up three years ago.
According to Gunn, about 10 per cent of the firms are actually in the incubator units that the centre provides while the rest form a virtual network.
“Out of 160 firms, 60 are in the growth phase. The challenge is in the growth phase when the firm is trying to get its products accepted,” said Gunn. “We find firms want to create a product first but we tell them it is better to come up with a product demo or concept first. Firms should really understand if there is a need for a product first,” added Gunn.
Firms in the wireless network are mostly in applications for mobile technology, such as mobile gaming and content.