JIC (South Moravian Innovation Centre)

JIC (South Moravian Innovation Centre) is a public-private partnership, established in 2003 in Brno, that channels research from Masaryk University, Brno University of Technology and Mendel University into commercial ventures. It runs three sector-specific incubators — JIC INTECH (technology), JIC INBIT (biotech) and JIC INMEC (advanced materials) — and since 2015 has run JIC VENTURES, a fund investing in current and former incubator participants.

Independent reporting by Euronews (January 2023) found that JIC has contributed to more than 3,500 skilled jobs since 2003, and that companies it has supported have generated approximately €700 million in combined turnover. JIC's own annual budget exceeds €12.5 million, of which 72% comes from EU Cohesion Policy funding. An earlier 15th-anniversary review (JIC, 2018) reported a wider historical figure of almost 6,500 jobs at over 300 supported companies with combined revenues of nearly CZK 30 billion — the two figures use different scopes and time windows and should not be added together.

Alumni include Kiwi.com, which grew out of JIC support after founding in 2012 and was named the fastest-growing tech company in Central Europe in 2017 after a reported 7,000% sales increase over four years, and IDEA StatiCa, a structural-engineering software firm that started at JIC and now serves 6,500+ customers globally.

Over the past five years the wider Brno region — where JIC is the lead innovation intermediary — has attracted at least €300 million in company investment, and Financial Times' 2026 ranking placed JIC 50th among Europe's leading start-up hubs. In 2025 the region recorded its second most successful investment year on record, with cybersecurity firms ThreatMark, Whalebone and Safetica together raising nearly €40 million.

Read the full analysis: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2023/01/30/brnos-jic-business-hub-stimulating-growth-and-inspiring-entrepreneurship