UBI Global ranks KSUM as world’s No.1 public business incubator

KSUM receives honour at world incubation summit in Belgium

Trivandrum / May 17, 2023

Thiruvananthapuram, May 17: Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) has been ranked as the world's top public business incubator by the UBI Global World Benchmark Study 2021-2022 of Business Incubators and Accelerators, marking a major endorsement of its role in turning Kerala into a vibrant startup hub.

Secretary (Electronics & IT), Government of Kerala, Dr Rathan U Kelkar, and KSUM CEO Shri Anoop Ambika, jointly received the honour for KSUM at the UBI Global World Rankings 2021-2022 event held as part of the World Incubation Summit in Ghent, Belgium, on Tuesday.

UBI Global is a Sweden-based innovation intelligence company and community founded in 2013 in Stockholm.

“KSUM’s incubation programmes demonstrated exceptional value for client startups, value for the local ecosystem, and overall attractiveness as a programme. Following a rigorous data-driven approach, we assessed and benchmarked incubation organisations across the world,” said Head of Research at UBI Global, Mr Joshuah Sowah.

Also, the study is in tune with the multiple facets of the international incubation ecosystem and illustrates critical challenges and opportunities the participating organisations face, he noted.

Commenting on KSUM’s global recognition, Dr Kelkar said, this global honour aid in bringing more investment to Kerala’s startup sector. This would also bolster the startup mission’s efforts to excel further.

The State government’s policies have played a significant role in revving up Kerala’s entrepreneurship spirit. This has helped the State to build a successful startup ecosystem that motivates people to thrive in the sector, Dr Kelkar said.

Securing the top most position among the business incubators of the world is a big recognition of KSUM’s efforts in creating a robust ecosystem and for its various incubation programmes. This remarkable achievement of KSUM will provide further impetus to its activities in building the world’s best startup ecosystem in Kerala, Shri Anoop Ambika said.

KSUM’s innovative programmes including the virtual incubation programme, ‘Fail Fast or Succeed’ (FFS), physical incubation support provided for startups at various stages, and the systematic funding mechanism for startups that offers grants from ideation stage to market acceleration have all played a key role in getting this momentous global recognition, he added.

Also, KSUM’s international-level super fab lab facility that supports startups at different stages from product designing to product manufacturing and its foreign delegation schemes which enables the nascent firms to participate in startup and tech summits held in foreign countries, thereby helping them explore potential foreign markets for their products have been taken into account while bestowing this international honour.

The World Benchmark Study is conducted to identify the best programmes from around the world and share the best practices for building a robust startup ecosystem.

For the sixth edition of the World Benchmark Studyof business incubators and accelerators conducted by UBI Global, 1895 organizations were assessed, 356 of these organizations applied to participate in the study, and 109 were benchmarked.

By evaluating its outstanding impact and performance, the world benchmark study ranks an organisation as the top public/private business incubator in the world. Also, the study will take into account the scope of value, business, and investment opportunities provided by incubation programmes for startups.

Back in 2019, UBI Global recognised KSUM as world’s No. 1 public business accelerator.

KSUM received major accolades in the last five years, adding to the momentum of its incubation activities that accelerated the growth of nascent firms. In 2018, 2019, and 2021, the State was ranked as Top Performer in the State Startup Ranking by Startup India, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). KSUM received Chief  Minister’s Award for Innovation in Public Policy for the year 2016.

KSUM is the nodal agency of the Kerala Government for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in the state.