SSE Business Lab - Europe's leading startup incubator
SSE Business Lab is the startup incubator of the Stockholm School of Economics, supporting early stage founders with funding, mentorship, and access to investors.
SSE Business Lab is the startup incubator of Stockholm School of Economics, founded in 2001, and positioned as a high-selectivity pathway for SSE-connected founders to build scalable companies with international potential. SSE’s own communications emphasize both volume and outcomes: at least 300 startups supported since inception, named alumni such as Klarna and Voi Technology, and repeated recognition in the Financial Times’ European “startup hubs” rankings.
What differentiates SSE Business Lab from many university incubators is the explicit coupling of incubation with an in-house, evergreen investment vehicle, SSE Ventures, which offers admitted Incubate teams a standard 300,000 SEK investment instrument and signals the ambition to remain a long-term owner.
As of mid-February 2026, SSE Business Lab is also framing its current edge around Stockholm’s AI momentum. SSE published a February 2026 cohort story where AI is described as the common foundation across the admitted startups, and SSE Business Lab moved from 8th to 7th place in the latest Financial Times ranking while remaining the only Nordic hub in the European top ten.
What is SSE Business Lab
SSE Business Lab is presented by SSE as the School’s startup incubator, built to “encourage entrepreneurship” and help startups accelerate growth. The public positioning makes two things clear: eligibility is tied to SSE affiliation (students, alumni, faculty or staff), and the intended output is scalable companies rather than lifestyle businesses.
A useful way to understand SSE Business Lab’s role in Sweden’s startup landscape is as a talent-filtered, brand-amplified micro-ecosystem: founders enter through a competitive admissions process evaluated by an external admissions committee, and once admitted they receive structured coaching, a founder community, network access, and potential funding pathways via SSE’s investor networks and SSE Ventures.
SSE’s February 2026 news framing links SSE Business Lab’s position to Stockholm’s current narrative, especially around AI and “builders” choosing Stockholm as a base. While this is partly a communications angle, it is also grounded in concrete signals such as the incubator’s public cohort announcements and its continuous participation in, and improvement within, third-party rankings.
Program architecture and founder journey
SSE Business Lab describes a staged support structure spanning early idea formation to pre-seed acceleration and longer incubation.
Ideate: a ten-week program where students across SSE, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Karolinska Institute, and GIH Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences apply as individuals, form teams, and build ideas aimed at solving global challenges, with support from KTH Innovation and SSE Business Lab.
Activate: described in SSE news as an eight-week accelerator designed to move founders from idea to prototype and initial commercial progress, originally launched as a summer-focused bridge between earlier-stage and incubation support.
Incubate: designed for startups with scalable products or services and international potential; SSE describes six months of support with the possibility to extend up to 18 months, alongside office space, coaching, workshops, and investor-facing moments.
Capital access and investor interface
SSE Business Lab’s capital model is explicitly hybrid: it combines indirect access to investors (networks, office hours, demo days) with direct access to a defined in-house investment offer through SSE Ventures.
SSE Ventures’ published offer includes a 300,000 SEK investment either as a convertible note or as a direct investment in an open round (with conditions stated by SSE), with a convertible cap of 50 MSEK and potential follow-on investments up to Series A or B, subject to investment committee approval. SSE also states that SSE Ventures does not invest outside the Incubate program and positions itself as “patient capital” with no end date.
SSE Business Lab also runs recurring investor formats intended to create earlier relationship-building rather than purely transactional fundraising. SSE describes Investor Office Hours (pre-booked 15-minute meetings) and Demo Days three times per year for Activate graduates or Incubate teams reaching the six-month milestone.
Portfolio, highlighted startups, and impact
SSE Business Lab’s “portfolio” is best understood as an alumni base and an admissions list rather than a single fund portfolio. SSE states that 307 startups had passed through the incubator by June 2024 and notes that 118 of those were admitted since 2020, indicating rapid recent growth in intake.
SSE’s own examples of prominent alumni and admissions-list companies span fintech, SaaS, logistics, and mobility. Beyond Klarna and Voi, SSE references companies such as Quinyx and Budbee (now operating under the Instabee umbrella in the industry narrative) as contributors to its ranking track record.
A notable third-party credibility anchor is repeated Financial Times recognition cited by SSE itself. SSE states that in 2024 the Financial Times named the incubator’s track record best in Europe, and in February 2026 SSE reported the incubator moved to 7th place in a ranking of 180 European startup hubs while remaining the only Nordic top-ten hub.
Recent cohorts and thematic direction
SSE Business Lab publishes cohort-level announcements that indicate where founder demand and admissions emphasis are trending.
In March 2025, SSE announced the largest intake in its history: 15 startups admitted simultaneously, with 60 percent described as built on AI technology. SSE listed both Incubate and Activate admits in that announcement, suggesting the staged model remains active.
In February 2026, SSE described the first batch of the year as unified by AI foundations and explicitly listed companies such as Eggsplain and Elyra to illustrate scope from “AI sovereignty” infrastructure to everyday operational automation.
Eligibility and targeting
SSE Business Lab targets founding teams connected to SSE. The admissions portal states that any founding team can apply as long as at least one member is affiliated with SSE (student, alumni, faculty or staff), and that solo founders are not accepted because the program only takes teams.
For Incubate specifically, SSE also states that at least one founder must have an association with SSE. Ideate is broader by design and invites students from multiple Stockholm-based institutions to apply as individuals.