Accelerating the Development of Agribusiness Enterprises by Using Business Incubators

This note explores business incubation as a mechanism for effectively and sustainably accelerating the growth of startup enterprises that bring innovative technologies and services to market. Typically startup enterprises face a number of challenges in growing, including the lack of technical assistance, appropriate financing, networks of partners and customers, and infrastructure. Business incubators have effectively supported the growth of enterprises across many sectors, including agriculture. Although the number of agribusiness incubators is limited, interest is growing in expanding them and learning from experience in other sectors. This note summarizes experiences with two agribusiness incubators and offers key lessons learned from others around the world, including business plan development (for example, a tenyear financing and sustainability plan) based on a detailed market assessment and structuring an effective management team.