SetSquared sweeps UBI crown

SetSquared, the UK-based enterprise support partnership between the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey, was crowned the world’s best university-managed incubator for a third time yesterday by research and advisory firm UBI Global.
The award was announced at UBI’s World Incubation Summit in Qatar, the apex of a benchmarking program that includes more than 1,500 incubators and accelerators in 78 countries.
SetSquared first topped the ranking in 2015 and subsequently shared the prize with Ryerson University’s DMZ incubator in February 2018.
The partnership was founded in 2001 to collectively foster emerging enterprises through spinouts, licensing and incubation, working together with industry through research collaborations and consultancy.
To date, SetSquared has supported more than 4,000 UK-based tech startups which have together raised more than £1.8bn ($2.3bn) and whose overall economic impact has been pegged at about $11bn.
Simon Bond, innovation director at SetSquared, said: “We are thrilled to be acknowledged as the world’s top university business incubator once again and to be recognised amongst the world’s leading university business incubators and accelerator programs.
“This ranking is testament to the dedication of everyone in the SetSquared team and their commitment to the entrepreneurial talent and research and innovation capabilities of the UK.”
In no particular order, the top ten university business incubators were:

• SetSquared Partnership (University of Bath, University of Bristol, University of Exeter, University of Southampton, University of Surrey);
• Chalmers Ventures (Chalmers University of Technology);
• DMZ (Ryerson University);
• İTÜ Çekirdek (Istanbul Technical University);
• IPN Incubadora (University of Coimbra, Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra);
• PoliHub – Innovation District and Startup Accelerator (Politecnico di Milano);
• Red de Incubadoras de la Universidad del Valle de Mexico (Laureate International Universities);
• University of Toronto Entrepreneurship (University of Toronto);
• Utrechtinc (Utrecht University, University Medical Center Utrecht, University of Applied Sciences Utrecht); and
• Yes!Delft (Delft University of Technology, Hague University of Applied Sciences).

Ali Amin, CEO and co-founder of UBI Global, added: “Following a rigorous data-driven approach, we assessed and benchmarked incubation programs across the world.
“Our World Benchmark Study 2019-2020 is in tune with the multiple facets of the international incubation ecosystem and illustrates key challenges and opportunities faced by the participating programs.”