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1871 Named Top University-Affiliated Business Incubator In The U.S.

By Kate Shepherd in News on Nov 4, 2015 7:08PM


Chicago might not be Silicon Valley, but local tech incubator 1871 has a new claim to fame. It's been named the top university-affiliated business incubator in the U.S. and #2 in North America by performance analyst UBI Global.

Over 400 incubators around the world were analyzed for the latest rankings, the entrepreneurial hub announced in a statement. Since it launched in 2012, 1871 has integrated itself with universities around the Chicago area and in other parts of the world. The Merchandise Mart-based hub has dedicated spaces for students and faculty from Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Loyola University Chicago, DeVry University and Illinois Institute of Technology in addition to the start-ups that call the space home.

"1871 is a top performing business incubator in the North American region," Director of Research and Co-Founder of UBI Global Dhruv Bhatli said in a statement. "It performs exceptionally well on value for client indicators. Additionally, it strongly contributes to the growth of the local economy by catalyzing job creation. 1871 provides high-quality incubation services to its client startups, particularly on access to fund and access to network indicators."

In 2014 UBI named 1871 as the ninth-best university-affiliated business incubator in the world. The 2015 global rankings are expected to be released later this year.