“This national recognition of the impact ATDC is having is a credit to our entrepreneurs," said Blake Patton, ATDC’s interim general manager. “Our company founders are building innovative tech enterprises that are solving big problems. Their ingenuity and drive have helped us create a unique environment that accelerates a startup's success."

In its description of ATDC, Forbes noted that since 1980, the center has launched more than 120 companies that have collectively raised more than $1 billion in outside financing. 

ATDC was the only incubator in the Southeast to make the Forbes list. Others selected were Y Combinator (Mountain View, Calif.), Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives (Worchester, Mass.), Houston Technology Center, Palo Alto Research Center, Technology Innovation Center (Evanston, Ill.), The Icehouse (Auckland, New Zealand), the Research Park at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, MGE innovation Center (Madison, Wis.), the Environmental Business Cluster (San Jose, Calif.), Seedcamp, (London, UK) and Dreamit Ventures (Philadelphia).

In 2010, Forbes named ATDC to its list of the“10 technology incubators that are changing the world.”