HSE’s Business Incubator Ranked 7th in the World by UBI Global

The UBI Awards Ceremony was held on February 22 at the World Incubation Summit at Ryerson University, Toronto. HSE’s Business Incubator has entered the ranking for the second in a row. In 2015, it was ranked 14^th in the category ‘best business incubator managed by a university’ among more than 100.

This year, UBI Global, the Swedish analytics company, which compiles the rankings bi-annually, evaluated more than 1370 incubators from 53 countries. 259 incubation programmes were selected for benchmarking. The UBI Global rating for 2017/2018 divided them into four categories:

• the best business incubators managed by a university;
• the best business incubators affiliated with a university;
• the best business incubators cooperating with at least one university;
• developing business accelerators which are linked to higher education institutions.

According to UBI Global data, the incubators which entered this year’s ranking attracted more than 10 000 startups in 2016, and the number of resident company employees and incubation programme graduates exceeds 72,000. Over the past five years, residents of the world's best incubators have earned more than $3.2 billion and attracted more than $4.7 billion in venture investment. ‘UBI Global evaluates incubators for several dozen key indicators. Not only does it decide on a rating, it also provides information on each parameter and compares participants in the study in terms of the parameters. We are honoured to be counted among the best university incubators in the world for the second time in a row.For us, this is not just an award – it is recognition of our effectiveness and our strategy,’ comments Mikhail Erman, Head of HSE’s Business Incubator.

The effectiveness of each incubator was measured according to 40 indicators in three main groups - impact on the ecosystem, value to customers and attractiveness of the incubation programme. The comparative analysis by UBI takes into account the resources and capabilities of the incubator (income, number of jobs created, number of partners and activities), as well as the results of residents and graduates - the volume of investment, the survival rate of start-ups and the number of deals made.

UBI Global is the only business incubator performance rating which gives an indication of trends in​​ global infrastructure. The most applications this year were from Latin America (39%), 28% from Europe and 14% from North America. The countries with the highest number of incubators which entered the rating were Brazil, Mexico, Canada, the USA and Colombia.

The total budget of incubators in the UBI rating exceeds $174 billion. According to UBI Global data, the main sources of funding for incubators and accelerators include state (28%), corporations (19%), and service fees (13%). A mere 5% of incubators which entered the rating are entirely funded by universities.

The British incubator SETsquared - a joint project between Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey universities – and DMZ, Ryerson University’s incubator, were recognised as the best university business incubators in the world in 2018. In second place was the Italian incubator, PoliHub, and in third place, the incubator at the University of Toronto (Canada). Click here to see the complete list.

In addition to HSE’s business incubator, four more Russian incubators made the rating: ITMO’s incubator (14^th in the category for business incubators managed by a university), ‘Ingria’ (8^th in the category for business incubators cooperating with a university), the accelerator based at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (7^th in the category for business accelerators), and GVA, which received the Top Challenger award for applicants who had achieved outstanding results and made a significant impact on the regional ecosystem.

HSE Business Incubator  is one of the most successful platforms developing entrepreneurship and supporting startups in Russia. Russia’s first student business incubator, set up by students and professors at HSE, it is the university’s business unit. Since 2006, the Business Incubator has provided consulting for more than 500 startups. These companies have attracted more than 700 million rubles in private investments and created a revenue exceeding 3 billion rubles. 10,000 people take part in its events annually. HSE {Inc}’s projects include the HSE {Pro} residency, Social Accelerator, the Startup of the Year Prize, and the business game, ‘Iron Entrepreneur’.

UBI Global  is a company based in Stockholm which rates business incubators around the world and provides corporations and governments with up-to-the-minute information from the markets. UBI has an international team of researchers and a Hub and Spoke member network of 400 business incubators and accelerators run by universities and affiliated HEIs in more than 70 countries.