This entry explores the critical role of business incubators in Southern Africa’s economic development, focusing on how they evolved from basic infrastructure models to advanced, technology-driven support systems. It gives an overview of various business incubation models in the region, emphasizing their importance in promoting entrepreneurship, job creation, and economic growth. The entry identifies key success metrics for business incubators, including graduation rates, funding received, job creation, and the challenges of securing consistent funding, integrating new technologies, and improving accessibility. The entry presents a case study of how university-based incubators can make use of innovative and strategic approaches that can lead to long-term economic development. The entry also highlights how higher education institutions, such as the Tshwane University of Technology Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (TUT CED), collaborate with business incubators to expand the business ecosystem. By leveraging Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), these collaborations optimize resources to support Small, Medium, and Micro-sized Enterprises (SMMEs), thereby driving community development and long-term economic impact. Key success metrics for business incubators, including graduation rates, funding received, and job creation, are identified, along with the challenges they face in ensuring sustainable growth. The entry emphasizes the need to strengthen the business incubation ecosystem through university-based incubation and proposes future research directions, such as the impact of AI on business incubation, the scalability of virtual incubator models, and the long-term outcomes of incubator-supported businesses.