The University of Toronto Early-Stage Technology (UTEST) program,  part of U of T’s growing ecosystem of incubators and commercialization support services, has been named one of Canada’s seven true start-up accelerators.

The findings come from Helen Kula‘s MaRS Data Catalyst report and were covered by Rob Lewis of TechVibes.

Here’s an excerpt:

Over the past three years, dozens of accelerators and accelerator-like programs have emerged in Canada. However, there is debate about their value—do accelerators hurt start-ups, and can the accelerators themselves succeed?

New research by MaRS Data Catalyst this week provided a “fact-based foundation for discussion.” The report cites Canada as having seven “true” accelerators: GrowLab in Vancouver; Hyperdrive in Waterloo; FounderFuel in Montreal; and Extreme Startups, INcubes, Jolt, and UTEST in Toronto.

A MaRS’ visualization of Canadian accelerator data is available on the Data Catalyst website.

A full report detailing complete findings will be released June 20, 2013.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, marketing and communications manager.