Five Canadian business incubators and accelerators are in the world's top 10
Canada is the only country in the world with three business incubator programs in the top 10 of the UBI Global list.
Three Canadian business incubators are among the world's top 10 business incubators in universities, as compiled annually by the Swedish research group UBI Global.
UBI Global specializes in the evaluation and selection of business incubators and business accelerators worldwide. More than 1,200 incubators and accelerators from 90 countries are members of UBI Global. In compiling its rankings, the organization analyzes more than 1,800 programs and is based on key performance indicators, such as economy enhancement, competence development, program attractiveness, and post-graduate performance.
This year, three Canadian organizations made it to the top 10 of UBI Global's university business incubators — McGill's Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurship, the University of Toronto Entrepreneurship Hatchery and Centech of Montreal.
Canada has also made great strides in the business accelerators space. There are two Canadian organizations — the Waterloo Accelerator Centre and the York Entrepreneurship Development Institute — in the world's top five business accelerators.
Canadian organizations are not new to the UBI Global rankings. For example, the Waterloo Accelerator Center was already in last year's top, and Ryerson University's Digital Media Zone (DMZ) was named the best business incubator in the world in 2018.
It is worth noting that most of the business incubators and accelerators mentioned above — University of Toronto Entrepreneurial Incubator, Waterloo Accelerator Center, York Institute for Entrepreneurial Development, and DMZ at Ryerson University — are on the Canadian government's list of approved business incubators for immigration to Canada under the Start-Up Visa program. So if you have your own startup with which you want to immigrate to Canada, you should obviously take a closer look at these organizations.
The Start-Up Visa program allows entrepreneurs with innovative business ideas to immigrate to Canada, bring their family and business project employees (up to 5 people) and get a permanent residence permit in the shortest possible time. But first you need to get support from one of the designated organizations that will invest in or support your startup. The aforementioned business incubators and accelerators are among such Canadian government-approved organizations.
You can learn more about the immigration program for startup founders in our article.
