The ODI has been at the forefront of the open data movement since its inception in 2012.

In parallel to helping organisations open data sets to the public, with the ODI Incubator, we identified the need to support entrepreneurs who were building innovative digital businesses using publicly available data.

We coached startups on business models that focussed on keeping access to data available to anyone and provided them with businesses and technical skills.

About the incubator

The ODI startup incubator ran from 2012 to 2017 as a 9-12 months programme supporting early stage startups that used open data as part of their business model.

During the incubation, the startups received coaching from the ODI team, mentorship and training from relevant experts, office space and access to the ODI network of industry partners and stakeholders from the data community.

Impact

With this programme, we’ve supported 33 startups in five cohorts. Collectively they’ve employed 130 people and raised over £16m in sales, investment and efficiencies (time and money saved to customers), whilst generating social, environmental and economic impact.

External partners

An essential part of the success of this programme was the connecting of startups with external corporates fostering the development of exploratory projects., This resulted in some successful collaborations like the one between

Got questions? We’d love to hear from you [email protected]

Interested in ODINE, our open data incubator for Europe? Find out more here