The Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI) has been named the number one University-linked incubator in the world by the University Business Incubator Index (UBI).

This ranking represents a big win for our state in a competitive category populated by incubators from Stanford, Cornell and UC Berkeley, to name a few.

 

 

YBI is affiliated with Youngstown State, Akron, Kent State, Hiram and Case Western Reserve. It is also a member of the JumpStart Entrepreneurial Network, a coalition of incubators, accelerators, angel funds and other organizations dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship across the 21 counties of Northeast Ohio.

The incubator was founded in 1995 and became software-centric in 2000. It offers low or no-cost workspace and entrepreneurial resources/counseling to young companies, who return that investment if/when they become profitable by paying rent and mentoring other tenants.

The incubator has helped create hundreds of tech jobs in Youngstown, many at Turning Technologies, an early client that has grown to become a major player in the field of audience-response software.

Sweden-based UBI first honored YBI in 2013, ranking it 11th amongst university-linked incubators. This year it takes the top spot while southwestern neighbor TechColumbus ranks third. This places two Ohio-based incubators among the top five in the world.

U.S. incubators from Illinois and California were also ranked at number nine and number six respectively in the UBI global top 10.

JumpStart Inc. salutes YBI and TechColumbus for their dedication to helping entrepreneurs and their commitment to making Ohio a globally recognized hotbed of innovation and economic growth.