Australian incubator ATP Innovations recognised as world’s best

Leading technology business incubator ATP Innovations took top honours at the National Business Incubation Association awards in New Orleans, winning the 2014 Randall M Whaley Incubator of the Year award.

The National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) is the peak global body for business incubation and entrepreneurship with over 2200 members in more than 60 countries.

The Sydney-based incubator was selected by industry peer professionals based on its overall excellence in delivering business building services and its track record of building high growth technology companies with global reach. It also took home the Dinah Adkins “Technology Focus” Incubator of the Year award.

More than 300 software, hardware and life science startups have been helped by ATP Innovations since 2000.

Together, they have raised over $113 million in capital since 2006. Last year, ATP Innovations’ companies had combined revenue of over $45 million, half of which was export related. They raised $8 million in equity capital, hired 69 new employees, launched 80 products, and had seven patents granted.

Hamish Hawthorn, CEO of ATP Innovations, said they were honoured to be the first Australian technology incubator to be recognised as the world’s best.

“We owe our success to many factors – the support of our shareholder universities, the way the founders of the companies at ATP Innovations help each other, the experienced mentors helping our companies,” Hawthorn said.

“Sharing the entrepreneurs’ journey and being part of their success is the best part of it.”

The awards recognised the ongoing success of ATP Innovations in providing companies with assistance across a wide range of areas, including in negotiating technology licences, insight into government support and financial assistance, access to a strong network of investors and advisors, and strategic guidance.

Seven ATP Innovations companies have gone on to sell their businesses since 2006, most recently Azalient which was acquired by Autodesk in December last year.

“In recent years we’ve undergone intense transformation to meet demand from Australia’s growing startup ecosystem – launching and supporting accelerator programs in parallel with our core incubator services,” Hawthorn said.

“This award is a great endorsement of both ATP Innovations and Australia. It underlines the huge opportunity we have to capitalise on our human capital and strong research-base to create world-leading companies.”