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Montpellier BIC among Europe’s top 10 incubators

Information updated on 20/06/18
The year, Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole Business and Innovation Centre was ranked second in the UBI Global listing of Europe’s top 10 incubators, and is in the running to be among the top 10 worldwide. Established by an independent international research organization, this ranking raises the incubator’s notoriety and credibility, while also offering significant benefit to incubated companies.
Based in Sweden, UBI Global is an independent international research organization that evaluates the performance of incubators around the world based on precise indicators. UBI’s rigorous methodology has established this ranking as one of the most prestigious.
Once again, Montpellier’s BIC is highly regarded in the international incubator rankings. The objective of the Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole Business and Innovation Centre is to help innovative companies accelerate their creation process, and provide favorable conditions so that companies can grow effectively. The incubator’s performance therefore mirrors the success of its assisted companies.
Every year, the UBI ranking unites and compares an increasing number of incubators. Over 1,200 incubation organizations around the world participated in the benchmark in 2015, up from 800 in 2014.
Given this increasing volume, and to better take into account the diversity of ecosystems in different regions around the globe, UBI Global organized its classification by continent for the first time. While waiting for the worldwide ranking to be published, expected before the end of the year, Montpellier Métropole BIC was ranked as the second best European incubator, behind its Dublin counterpart and ahead of the Italian incubator that preceded Montpellier last year. In 2014, without the intermediate ranking by continent, Montpellier Métropole BIC was ranked as the 4th leading incubator worldwide, following two American incubators and the Italian incubator, H-Farm Venture.
Montpellier Métropole BIC participates in the ranking every year, which is beneficial in several ways: responding to this type of benchmark pushes the BIC to work on its own performance indicators, evaluate the efficiency of its actions, and thus to further improve its assistance practices. Even more, the ranking not only recognizes the work performed by BIC in terms of serving assisted companies, but it also highlights the quality of incubated startups, whose performance is also evaluated. Both the BIC and its startups receive exposure, and BIC’s expertise in assisting innovation is given further credibility with respect to its main targets – national and international investors, and large companies – now increasingly interested in working with the most promising startups.
A regular appearance in these types of rankings therefore truly benefits BIC-assisted startups. Among other things, the ranking reflects the economic impact of the BIC structure within the territory. Over 590 startups have been assisted in the past 28 years. Those that are still doing business today now represent over 4,600 direct jobs locally, with combined sales revenue in the range of 600 M€. Over the years, BIC has contributed to many metropolitan success stories, including companies such as MedTech, AwoX, OCEASOFT, SMAG, Aquafadas and, more recently, Teads and BIME.
Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole Business & Innovation Centre (BIC)