New Venture Institute shines bright in Asia Pacific, two years in a row

Flinders University’s New Venture Institute (NVI) has reinforced its reputation as Australia’s #1 University Business accelerator.

In naming its top business incubators world wide, the renowned UBI World Benchmark Study included NVI as the only Australian incubator and one of three that top the Asia Pacific region for 2019/20.

Winning this coveted honour doubles down on NVI’s success as top ranked university business incubator in the Asia Pacific for 2017/18.

The Stockholm-based UBI World Benchmark Study is the most extensive ranking exercise for university-linked business incubators and accelerators. It assessed 1,580 different programs across 82 countries, revealing those leading the world at the World Incubation Summit held in Doha, Qatar, on 6 November 2019.

Outperforming the top 10% of incubation programs worldwide in the category ‘talent retention and competence development’, the NVI also performed well for economy enhancement, access to networks, program attractiveness and post-graduation performance.

“We are extremely proud of this global recognition. It is a credit to the strength of our award-winning business support programs and the hard work of our talented entrepreneurs, university staff, mentors and business networks,” says NVI Director Aron Hausler.

“It is humbling to be the only Australian incubator recognised in this year’s awards across 1580 programs in 82 countries. This builds on our 2018 award for overall impact and performance in the Asia-Pacific region”.

Since 2013 the NVI has hosted more than 12,000 event participants, trained over 2,000 innovators, and founded, supported and grown 421 startups – an impressive feat for the institute which was only established in 2013.

It supports Flinders University’s broader programs through the co-development of innovation and enterprise topics, that are now available in every Flinders program and have contributed to the University’s meteoric rise to a place in Australia’s top five institutions for entrepreneurial education.

One of the NVI’s greatest strengths is its exceptionally high number of alumni entrepreneurs that remain engaged with the institute and choose to locate their operations adjacent upon graduation, at Adelaide’s Tonsley Innovation District.

Being located at Australia’s first innovation precinct gives NVI students, alumni and clients the opportunity to access world-class research, training and networks in a single multi-use hub, and take full advantage of South Australia’s capabilities in health, renewable energy, technology and mining.

NVI delivers both accredited and non-accredited programs which instil a startup mindset, skill set and tool set plus access to networks to empower participants as entrepreneurs in their own businesses, or valuable ‘intrapreneurs’ in their workplaces and industries.

This year has been pivotal to expanding its contributions, with programs now offered in Adelaide, the Limestone Coast region, Barossa, Yorke Peninsula and Mid North region together with Byron Bay in NSW.

The New Venture Institute is committed to forging new and innovative ways of bringing research and industry together to commercialise new technologies and bolster economic growth and job opportunities.

Visit the NVI website and view its full range of programs

UBI rankings

The UBI Global World Rankings selected three institutions as equal top Challengers in the Asia-Pacific region for the 2019-20 rankings.  The NVI was the only institution that ranked in Australia this year across private, public or university incubators. Find out more here.

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