The Creative Clyde Business Incubation Centre is being announced tonight and will be based in 1700 sq ft at Pacific Quay, with a focus on the creative industries.
The Digital Enterprise Glasgow incubator is based at the Thomson building in the city's university and will formally launch tomorrow with plans to work with firms in the e-commerce and digital media sectors.
Along with rent-free office space for an initial period of six months, budding entrepreneurs will benefit from mentoring and other support from partners such as Scottish Enterprise, Business Gateway, Creative Scotland, the BBC and STV.
The aim is for the hubs to work with more than 100 businesses over the next three years.
Production company Lifeup is the first to sign up at Pacific Quay and it hopes to continue developing a web television series offering viewers a more interactive experience.
Jon McFarlane, director, said: "We regard moving in to the Creative Clyde incubator as a major milestone for our company and a serious declaration of our intentions to grow the business.
"Not only does the incubator offer a fantastic working environment with lots of support and expert advice on tap, but we are so pleased to be surrounded by like-minded companies, major studio facilities, potential partners and collaborators, as well as prospective customers."
At the Glasgow University incubator companies can also tap into the Encompass project which offers up to £5000 of innovation funding vouchers.
Other Digital Enterprise Glasgow incubators, backed by Glasgow City Council, are at Stow, Cardonald and City of Glasgow colleges plus Strathclyde University.
Jill Farrell, from Scottish Enterprise, said: "We know there is such a demand for these types of spaces and support in the creative industries.
"It gives companies a legitimate feeling of being part of something bigger.
"The networking and contact building they can do by being in proximity to others in the industry is also very important."
This week more than 100 artists – including Makar Liz Lochhead, composer James MacMillan, author Ian Rankin and playwright David Greig – signed a letter called for change at funding body Creative Scotland. Anger in the creative community has been growing over the policies of the organisation, which has removed fixed-term flexible funding from more than 40 arts projects.
