UBI Global

UBI Global operates as an international membership organization, enhancing startup incubators, accelerators, and innovation professionals. It delivers intelligence, comprehensive benchmarking, and world rankings. Leveraging data, the company provides actionable insights, fostering continuous improvement and excellence across the global startup ecosystem.

Founded in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2013, Ali Amin co-founded UBI Global and serves as CEO. The organization arose from a recognized need for systematic evaluation and elevation of global incubation and acceleration programs. This drove creation of a collaborative platform, aggregating best practices and fostering community for shared learning.

Serving over a thousand incubators and accelerators across 90 countries, UBI Global empowers clients to achieve operational excellence. Its mission provides objective performance metrics and shared knowledge. The company envisions cultivating a robust, diverse, and inclusive global startup ecosystem, preparing members to support innovative ventures.

# UBI Global: High-Level Overview

UBI Global is an international membership organization that provides intelligence, benchmarking, rankings, and learning opportunities for startup incubators and accelerators worldwide.[2] Rather than being a traditional investment firm or product company, UBI Global operates as a data and insights platform serving the global innovation ecosystem. Its mission is to empower startup incubators and accelerators to achieve excellence through benchmarking, world rankings, and collective knowledge sharing.[1] The organization works with a community of more than 800 member programs located in over 70 countries, publishing the World Benchmark Study—described as "the gold standard report" for assessing global innovation programs.[3]

UBI Global's core value proposition centers on four pillars: curating industry intelligence, offering impact and performance benchmarking, conducting startup incubator and accelerator rankings, and providing peer-driven learning resources.[2] A membership provides incubators, accelerators, and individual professionals with access to benchmarking data, performance rankings, and learning opportunities that enable continuous improvement and professional development.[2]

Origin Story

The organization emerged from a specific gap in knowledge. In 2012, a Swedish student posed a fundamental question: "What are the traits of the most successful top-performing university incubators worldwide?"[3] At that time, the landscape was unmapped, unexplored, and unranked. This question catalyzed the founding of UBI Global, initially with a mission to identify, benchmark, and recognize university-linked incubator and accelerator programs.[3]

Since its inception around 2013, UBI Global has evolved significantly. It began as a focused research initiative but has grown into a comprehensive intelligence company serving the broader innovation ecosystem.[3] The organization has expanded beyond university-linked programs to work with corporate entities and governments—top corporations such as Cisco and numerous governments now seek UBI Global's expertise to understand and transform entrepreneurship in their constituencies.[4]

Core Differentiators

• Data-driven assessment pioneer: UBI Global is recognized as a pioneer in data-driven evaluation of business incubators and accelerators, conducting what is described as the largest global benchmark in this space.[4]

• Gold standard benchmarking: The World Benchmark Study has become the global standard for learning about top-performing business incubators, with coverage by major media outlets including BBC, Financial Times, The Chicago Tribune, and others.[4]

• Extensive resource library: Beyond rankings, UBI Global has built a comprehensive knowledge offering including a Glossary from A to Z, 15 Best Practices for Business Incubators and Accelerators, and case studies on corporate innovation.[3]

• Global reach and credibility: With members from over 70 countries and recognition from major corporations and governments, UBI Global has established itself as a trusted authority in the innovation ecosystem.[3][4]

• Peer-driven intelligence model: The organization leverages its active membership community to share data and knowledge, creating a collaborative ecosystem rather than a top-down research approach.[3]

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

UBI Global operates at a critical intersection in the global startup economy. As entrepreneurship and innovation have become central to economic development strategies worldwide, the need for standardized, comparable data on incubator and accelerator performance has grown significantly. UBI Global fills this gap by providing the benchmarking infrastructure that allows programs to measure themselves against global peers and identify best practices.

The organization influences the broader ecosystem by establishing standards and visibility for innovation support programs. By ranking and benchmarking incubators and accelerators, UBI Global helps governments and corporations understand which programs are most effective, thereby directing resources toward high-performing initiatives. This creates a feedback loop that encourages continuous improvement across the global innovation infrastructure.[3][4]

Quick Take & Future Outlook

UBI Global's stated vision is to become "the main source of business incubation data and insights in the world."[4] As the organization continues to expand its data offerings and deepen its engagement with corporate and government stakeholders, it is well-positioned to shape how innovation support programs are evaluated and improved globally.

The future trajectory will likely involve deeper integration with decision-makers at corporations and governments, expanded data-driven reporting, and potentially new services that help programs implement the best practices identified through benchmarking. In an era where startup ecosystems are increasingly viewed as strategic assets, UBI Global's role as the authoritative voice on incubator and accelerator performance will only become more valuable.