Entrepreneurship
CWI has created 29 of spin-off companies: companies founded by CWI employees, with support from CWI.
The generation of spin-off companies is an important method for institutes like CWI to convert fundamental knowledge into practical applications for society and to create high-level employment at the same time.
Close links with the parent institute during the initial years form a crucial success factor. CWI researchers have successfully managed to establish spin-off companies in recent years; some of these now have dozens of employees - and even more. Spin-off companies sometimes receive considerable capital injections from investors in order to grow into the size considered necessary for successful operation on a global scale.
In 2000 CWI founded the CWI Incubator BV to generate high tech spin-off companies.