As centers of learning, innovation comes naturally to the university community; students and the teaching staff alike. One of the leading start-up supporters, the University of California, has led to about 1300 start-ups since 1969, a majority of which happened after the year 2000 spawned by the tech revolution. In the UK, the University of Oxford has supported over 70 successful startups in its incubation program and helped attract over $40 million in start-up funding.

According to UBI Global, which is a start-up support service, there are different levels that universities support start-ups:

• University managed start-up incubators – These are directly managed by the university. The top university managed start-ups include The SETsquared Partnership (United Kingdom), DMZ at Ryerson University (Canada), PoliHub Startup District & Incubator( Italy), University of Toronto Entrepreneurship (Canada), Incubadora de Alto Impacto del Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus León (TEC LEAN) (Mexico)
• Incubators affiliated with University – These start-ups partner with one or two universities in the venture, largely in research. This is usually on a contractual basis. The top university affiliated start-up programs include Chicago’s Technology & Entrepreneurship Center (United States), İTÜ Çekirdek (Turkey), Uppsala Innovation Centre (Sweden), YES! Delft (Netherlands), IPN Incubadora (Portugal).
• Incubators collaborating with a university – There is no contract in this arrangement but a Memorandum of Understanding. The top collaborative programs include Guinness Enterprise Centre (Ireland), Montpellier BIC (France), Shell Iniciativa Jovem (Brazil), MIDI Tecnológico (Brazil)
• Start-up accelerators linked to university – These are entities supporting start-ups, and which are affiliated, linked or managed by universities. Some of these top accelerators include York Entrepreneurship Development Institute (Canada), Entrepreneuriat Laval Inc. (Canada), TEC Edmonton (Canada), and The Accelerator Centre (Canada)

University-affiliated business accelerators help start-ups grow in several ways:

• Investment – While many accelerators inject funds as an investment expecting a return, some will do so for non-profit motives especially for start-ups with social benefits
• Training and education – An acceleration program usually includes training and education on different aspects of turning the start-up into a viable business with support structures like legal services, financial management, HR services, Sales, and Marketing.
• Mentorship – Many acceleration programs will also have a mentorship program where start-ups are linked to experienced industry players for guidance on how the industry works, and how to respond to different challenges.

Business accelerators play a very crucial role in the life of a start-up they come in for a brief period at the early stages of a start-up bringing in crucial support in funding, intense training and offer real-life experiences in business for start-ups.