Innovate Calgary ranked sixth in the world by the UBI

CALGARY, Alberta, Nov. 26, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The 2015 University Business Incubator World Rankings were announced yesterday, with Innovate Calgary earning the ranking of sixth in the world. This world ranking comes on the heels of the North American UBI index, which ranked Innovate Calgary third among its North American peers. "To have achieved this ranking is a testament to the world-class innovation in Calgary," says Peter Garrett, president, Innovate Calgary. "At Innovate Calgary we champion the value creation and economic development that results from bringing researchers, entrepreneurs, and investors together. Working in partnership with the University of Calgary, home to some amazing researchers, innovators, and entrepreneurs, we have achieved this level of success. We are excited about the impact we have made but we continue to look toward further growth." The 2015 UBI World Rankings assessed over 1270 incubators and reviewed a final 500 applicants to determine the rankings. For Innovate Calgary these rankings showcase the work being done through its university and incubation programs to commercialize research across all sectors. Innovate Calgary has been working with the UofC for over 30 years. This historic relationship has had tremendous economic impact with 71 spinout companies developed, 758 issued patents, and 469 technologies with executed licenses and options in more than 24 countries. In 2015, Innovate Calgary, working with UofC innovators, has created seven spinout companies, had over 100 students participate in entrepreneurial skill development programs, assessed 92 disclosures, had nine issued patents, and finalized 17 commercialization agreements in four countries. Innovate Calgary also has an impactful relationship with community innovators, with 19 licencing and option agreements and 43 issued patents. In the past five years clients of the Innovate Calgary incubation program have attracted $300M USD in investment. In 2015 nearly 400 community startups and entrepreneurs have been supported through Innovate Calgary programs and services. The UBI Global is a thought leader in performance analysis of business incubation around the world. They help business incubators and business accelerators become more efficient and competitive through a comprehensive benchmark where more than 400 incubation programs in over 70 countries participate. "The importance of discovering and identifying these top performing incubators is underlined by our studies, which show that top benchmarked incubators provide almost half of the total economic impact within the incubation market" says UBI Global ceo and co-founder, Ali Amin. "Highlighting some of their best practices will help universities, governments, incubation agencies and corporations to improve the incubators they support." A Top University Business Incubator is an incubator managed or formally affiliated with a university, that provide better value for the ecosystem and their startup clients than their regional or global peers. They stand out from average-performing incubators with better outcomes on economy enhancement, access to funds and post incubation performance indicators. The 2015 UBI World Rankings have set a benchmark for Innovate Calgary's commercialization and incubation goals and efforts. About Innovate Calgary As a leading technology transfer and commercialization centre, Innovate Calgary works closely with startups, entrepreneurs, researchers and investors from the advanced tech sector to take innovation and ideas to the next stage of growth. Innovate Calgary has been successfully contributing to the growth and acceleration of the advanced technology sector for more than 30 years. Our integrated approach to commercialization focuses on facilitating connections among stakeholders and offering a comprehensive range of programs and services to achieve success.

CONTACT: Meghan Ockey
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         Phone: 403-837-3112
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