British university incubator SETsquared named best in world

The partnership between Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey universities has helped more than 1,000 hi-tech start-ups

Bristol: the number of households is predicted to increase 11pc by 2021
SETsquared supports start-ups in Bristol, an emerging tech hub Credit: Photo: ALAMY

A UK incubator has beaten rivals from across the globe to be crowned the best university start-up engine.

SETsquared, which represents the enterprise partnership of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey universities, has supported more than 1,000 start-ups in the 13 years since it was formed, helping new companies raise more than £1bn in funding.

The ranking, which was compiled by global incubator specialist UBI Global, said that SETsquared's "high economic impact" and "continued dedication to entrepreneurs" had helped it take the top spot.

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Incubators help to nurture start-ups

The incubator has contributed £3.8bn to the UK economy to date, according to independent research from Warwick Economics, and will generate a further £15bn over the next 10 years.

There are currently 265 companies receiving support across its centres, and 9,000 jobs have been created by its start-up portfolio.

SETsquared is very proud to have played our part in putting the UK on the map as one of the top performing countries for innovation
Simon Bond, innovation director at SETsquared

"This top ranking is a real testament to the skill of our staff and the success of the hi-tech, high-growth potential ventures we work with," said Simon Bond, innovation director at SETsquared.

“The UK was recently ranked as the second most innovative country in the world by the Global Innovation Index for its performance in infrastructure, market sophistication, knowledge, technology and creative outputs, and SETsquared is very proud to have played our part in putting the UK on the map as one of the top performing countries for innovation.”

Last year, SETsquared was crowned the top incubator in Europe by the UBI Global ranking but lost out to The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship at Rice University Houston, which was crowned best in the world.