Top 100 Startup Accelerators List [2022]

Looking for a complete startup accelerator list? As a startup founder, a clear understanding of accelerator programs is important for the company’s future. Some startups may bootstrap into the market or find alternative ways of scaling up. But being part of a reputed accelerator program more often than not weighs out in favor of the startup. There is more to it than just funds. 

Startup Accelerators 

Statistics from the International Business Innovation Association reveal that more than 7,000 startups operating in the United States are supported by accelerators and incubators. As the startup marketplace continues to flourish, so do these global accelerator programs.    

What is a startup accelerator? 

A startup is typically a business built around a brilliant, scalable idea. Founders own the idea. But that is only the starting point. Founders have to figure out the best strategies and resources required to expand this idea into a profitable venture. It is quite a task. Not all startup founders are equipped enough to handle everything on their own. This is where the best startup accelerators play a fundamental role. 

Startup accelerators are short-term, time-bound, focused, cohort-based programs designed to guide founders in making their ideas market-ready as well as having the best shot at securing the necessary funds. These programs operate in batches and ensure that the participating founders are connected to a wider business network beyond their cohort. The selection criterion is rigorous and being part of the best startup accelerator program is a matter of pride and reputation for a new business.     

How do accelerators help startups?

The top startup accelerator programs are highly competitive. The acceptance rate is pinned at a mere 1 – 3%. But why are these programs important? What does a startup founder gain out of this? Amid their busy schedules, why should a founder attempt to associate with an accelerator program? Here are the important reasons:

• Funding: This is the fundamental reason why startup founders join accelerator programs. A big chunk of these programs is designed to help founders realize the monetary worth of their ideas and structure it in a way investors would be willing to engage. At the end of the program, startups are granted seed money that helps carry out their plans.
• Mentorship: The best startup accelerator programs stack a series of workshops, seminars, one-on-one discussions, and other prep work with a panel of successful entrepreneurs/investors in the industry. This formal mentorship in the early stages of a startup helps fine-tune ideas, pitches and it goes a long way in building a strong foundation for a startup.
• Demo Day: Every accelerator program leads up to a ‘demo day’ or ‘pitch day’. During the program, participating founders work on scaling up the business and by the time they reach the demo day, they have a pitch deck ready. This is a huge advantage as founders get to prepare and pitch their business to a large group of investors in one shot. Most often they receive the funds they need. Besides, if handled well, these relationships become long-term as well. The investor providing seed funds today can catapult them into successful Series A, B, and C rounds too.
• Networking: One of the crucial benefits of a startup accelerator program is the cohort structure. Participants work in groups and exchange ideas with fellow founders at a similar stage in business. This exchange of information enables a pragmatic approach to scaling up. Besides, participants also access the accelerator’s alumni network to gain strength and vision from what lies ahead. 
• Competitive validation: Startups graduating from accelerator programs become part of a premier league of sorts. Having gone through focused training and mentorship, an accelerator badge adds credibility to the potential of their ideas and their scalability. Investors find these startups reliable and count on their expertise for profitability. 

Is a Startup Accelerator Program Right for Your Business?

The benefits of startup accelerator programs are immense. But they can quickly turn into a disturbance if approached without preparations. Startup founders must have clarity about the stage of business and their availability before applying for these. Here are some pointers to check if a startup accelerator program is right for your business:

• Are you ready for a growth spurt? Accelerator programs are designed to concentrate the efforts of startups in a time-bound manner. Founders learn to scale up their business ideas in a way that profits the industry. During the program, the startup will find ways to scale up quickly.
• Are you ready for 100% focus? Top startup accelerator programs are quite intensive and demanding. Participating founders must be ready to dedicate all their time and efforts to keep up with the program schedule. While managing regular growth activities, if not prepared, this could be a heavy task. 
• Are you ready to part with equity? Since seed funding is part of accelerator programs, startup founders must know that these funds are granted in exchange for equity. This equity percentage may seem meager in the early stages of the business, but once the company grows, this amounts to a lot. Thus startups must be ready to part with sufficient equity in a way that does not hamper future investment prospects. 

Pros and Cons of Startup Accelerator 

Thus we see that no matter how dynamic a global accelerator program is, unless ready, startup founders may land themselves in trouble. Here are the pros and cons of a startup accelerator:

Pros:

• Dedicated working time to scale up business
• Mentorship, constructive feedback, co-working, training in market-ready environment
• Networking opportunities with fellow founders, experienced entrepreneurs, investors, alumni network
• Seed investments, chance to pitch to a large group of investors
• Badge of honor 

Cons:

• Part with equity
• Short-term, quick scale-up may not be suitable for all business 
• Mandatory participation may be a hindrance to scheduled startup activities

Who are Startup Accelerators looking for?

As an emerging founder, it is one thing to seek out the top startup accelerator program suitable for a business. But it is also important to know which type of business or people should apply for these programs? Who are startup accelerators looking for? Here are some indicators:

• Business at an early stage. Preferably seed stage. Very few accelerator programs support late-stage companies. 
• A startup idea that can be scaled for profits; preferably has a minimum viable product in place
• Startup with a functional business plan
• Startup with more than one founder
• Startup with a strong team capable of working together
• Startup team with a willingness to learn and demonstrate entrepreneurial skills 

Choosing a Right Startup Accelerator 

The best startup accelerators work with laser focus. They know who they want to support, which industry to cater to, which mentors to involve, and which group of investors to invite for the demo day. Thus, background research is important. Founders must check all options before finalizing a suitable accelerator program. Here are some factors to consider in this process:

• Which stage of the business life-cycle? This is the basic question a startup founder must strive to answer. Which stage of the business is the accelerator supporting? Is their business aligned to it? Most accelerators support growth-stage companies while some focus on Series-A rounds. An honest analysis of their business helps founders pitch for the right accelerator program that would create the maximum impact.
• Which industry? This is another important deciding factor. Founders must know what their product is offering and which industry it directly serves. This clarity will help them choose a top accelerator program that connects them to the right industry experts, strategic partners, and corporate investors. 
• Investor relationships: Demo day is the ultimate test of an accelerator program, both for the mentors and startup founders. All the hard work builds up to the investment pitch. Thus startup founders must research well about the past funding rounds offered by the accelerator, the type of investors present in them, and the size of funds granted.
• Program structure: Startup founders are always multitasking. It takes a special kind of caliber to harness that much energy day after day and keep the team motivated. Thus constructive feedback, fine-tuning skills, and the right mentorship are priceless assets. Founders must check if the accelerator program is offering these to suit their journey. Sometimes these programs may sound very basic. So it is best to have an open conversation with the organizers before signing up for anything.
• How much time? Time is a crucial resource. The top accelerator programs demand anywhere between 3 – 6 months of undivided attention from participants. Some require participants to relocate onsite while others may have a flexible online program that can be attended from the home ground. Startup founders must check their calendar and honestly verify if they can commit to the demands during the entire length of a program. Based on this, they can choose the program best suited for their company. 
• Reputation: Startup accelerators are mushrooming these days. Founders must be careful while choosing. A sound reputation is built only on successive graduation of cohorts and not as a one-time success. Thus participants must check if the mentorship yields sustainably even after graduation and if the investment process is standardized and adheres to all legal requirements.         

Top 100 Startup Accelerator List [Updated 2022]

Now that we have learned quite a lot about the benefits of startup accelerator programs, here is a list of the top 100 startup accelerators in the business to jump-start your journey. In the next section, we focus on the profiles of the top 20. Read on.

Entry	Organization	Number of Investments	Location
1	Y Combinator	4,552	Mountain View, California, United States
2	Techstars	3,602	Boulder, Colorado, United States
3	MassChallenge	3,040	Boston, Massachusetts, United States
4	500 Startups	2,819	San Francisco, California, United States
5	SOSV	2,390	Princeton, New Jersey, United States
6	Plug and Play	1,504	Sunnyvale, California, United States
7	Start-Up Chile	908	Santiago, Region Metropolitana, Chile
8	Alchemist Accelerator	568	San Francisco, California, United States
9	Startupbootcamp	541	London, England, United Kingdom
10	gBETA	510	Beloit, Wisconsin, United States
11	HAX	500	San Francisco, California, United States
12	SkyDeck Berkeley	466	Berkeley, California, United States
13	Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF)	452	Moscow, Moscow City, Russian Federation
14	LAUNCH	437	San Francisco, California, United States
15	Newchip	396	Austin, Texas, United States
16	Startup Wise Guys	392	Tallinn, Harjumaa, Estonia
17	IndieBio	378	San Francisco, California, United States
18	Entrepreneur First	363	London, England, United Kingdom
19	StartX (Stanford-StartX Fund)	331	Palo Alto, California, United States
20	(ERA) Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator	331	New York, United States
21	Forum Ventures	324	New York, United States
22	NEXT Canada	314	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
23	Village Capital	300	Washington, District of Columbia, United States
24	Village Global	282	San Francisco, California, United States
25	Chinaccelerator	270	Shanghai, Shanghai, China
26	Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund	261	Washington, District of Columbia, United States
27	Lanzadera Accelerator	258	Valencia, Comunidad Valenciana, Spain
28	DMZ	252	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
29	MedTech Innovator	244	Los Angeles, California, United States
30	Google for Startups	239	Mountain View, California, United States
31	EIT Digital Accelerator	238	Brussels, Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest, Belgium
32	Microsoft Accelerator	235	Redmond, Washington, United States
33	Techstars New York City Accelerator	235	New York, United States
34	SAP.iO	233	San Francisco, California, United States
35	AcceliCITY powered by Leading Cities	228	Boston, Massachusetts, United States
36	EXPERT DOJO	225	Santa Monica, California, United States
37	Mucker Capital	220	Santa Monica, California, United States
38	Techstars Boston Accelerator	219	Boston, Massachusetts, United States
39	Wilco	202	Paris, Ile-de-France, France
40	Bethnal Green Ventures	195	London, England, United Kingdom
41	gener8tor	194	Madison, Wisconsin, United States
42	Rockstart	192	Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, The Netherlands
43	Techstars Boulder Accelerator	185	Boulder, Colorado, United States
44	NC IDEA	185	Durham, North Carolina, United States
45	Capital Factory	184	Austin, Texas, United States
46	AngelPad	179	San Francisco, California, United States
47	Founder Friendly Labs	174	Palo Alto, California, United States
48	Boomtown Accelerators	173	Boulder, Colorado, United States
49	Outlier Ventures	168	London, England, United Kingdom
50	Future Fifty	168	London, England, United Kingdom
51	9Unicorns Accelerator Fund	165	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
52	Quake Capital Partners	165	Austin, Texas, United States
53	Starta VC	158	New York, United States
54	SparkLabs Accelerator	156	Seoul, Seoul-t'ukpyolsi, South Korea
55	Amplify.LA	155	Venice, California, United States
56	JumpStart	154	Cleveland, Ohio, United States
57	Techstars Seattle Accelerator	152	Seattle, Washington, United States
58	Microsoft Accelerator Beijing	152	Beijing, China
59	Samurai Incubate	150	Tokyo, Japan
60	Oasis500	149	Amman, Amman, Jordan
61	FasterCapital	148	Dubai, United Arab Emirates
62	Surge	147	Singapore, Central Region, Singapore
63	Brinc	147	Central, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong
64	InnoEnergy	145	Eindhoven, Noord-Brabant, The Netherlands
65	LVenture Group	144	Roma, Lazio, Italy
66	MetaProp	143	New York, United States
67	Propel Capital	143	Stockholm, Stockholms Lan, Sweden
68	Starve Ups	142	Portland, Oregon, United States
69	NTT DOCOMO Ventures	141	Minato, Chiba, Japan
70	MAGIC Fund	139	Los Angeles, California, United States
71	Amino Capital	138	Palo Alto, California, United States
72	DG Ventures (Digital Garage Group TSE4819)	138	Tokyo, Japan
73	AUC Venture Lab	138	Cairo, Al Qahirah, Egypt
74	Food-X	138	New York, United States
75	Space3ac	136	Gdansk, Pomorskie, Poland
76	LOI Labs	134	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
77	IDEA: Northeastern University's Venture Accelerator	133	Boston, Massachusetts, United States
78	Techstars Chicago	133	Chicago, Illinois, United States
79	ASU Venture Devils	132	Tempe, Arizona, United States
80	Capital Innovators	131	St Louis, Missouri, United States
81	RebelBio	129	London, England, United Kingdom
82	MIT delta v	129	Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
83	NUMA	125	Paris, Ile-de-France, France
84	ACE Startups	123	São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
85	Techstars Austin Accelerator	122	Austin, Texas, United States
86	Techstars London Accelerator	121	London, England, United Kingdom
87	Founders Factory	119	London, England, United Kingdom
88	InnovX	119	Bucharest, Bucuresti, Romania
89	Microsoft Accelerator Bangalore	119	Bangalore, Karnataka, India
90	XRC Labs	118	New York, United States
91	Google Launchpad Accelerator	117	Mountain View, California, United States
92	London Co-Investment Fund	117	London, England, United Kingdom
93	Blue Startups	116	Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
94	MOX	116	Taipei, T'ai-pei, Taiwan
95	Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group (LCIG)	114	Beijing, Beijing, China
96	FinTech Sandbox	114	Boston, Massachusetts, United States
97	Axel Springer Plug and Play Accelerator	113	Berlin, Germany
98	Accelerator Centre	111	Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
99	Axilor Ventures	110	Bangalore, Karnataka, India
100	Microsoft ScaleUp Tel Aviv	110	Tel Aviv, Israel

Top 20 Startup Accelerators

Now let’s focus on the top startup accelerator programs. In this section, we delve deeper into the profile of the 20 best accelerator programs in the market. Some are generic in terms of industry, while others are specific to a certain genre. Read on.

Y Combinator

Y Combinator, founded in 2005, is one of the most successful startup accelerators globally. Headquartered at Mountain View, California Y Combinator was founded by Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Robert Morris, and Trevor Blackwell. It is a 12 weeks on-site program focused on seed, early-stage venture, and seed-stage startups. It provides $150K funding for many startups. They accommodate two batches per year (Jan- Mar & Jun-Aug). Y Combinator caters to finance, impact investing, and virtual currency industries with a special focus on black/African American-led and women-founded startups. Some of the firebrands supported by Y Combinator are Stripe, Airbnb, Cruise, Automation, DoorDash, Coinbase, Instacart, Dropbox, Twitch, and Reddit. Y Combinator has made close to 4,000 odd investments so far with 354 successful exits. 

TechStars

TechStars was founded in 2006 by Brad Feld, David Brown, David Cohen, and Jared Polis. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, TechStars offers 3 months accelerator programs of three types – Virtual, In-person, and hybrid. Their applications open six times a year. TechStars focus on debt, early-stage ventures, and seed-stage companies. They are not a stand-alone accelerator program. TechStars operates through four different platforms to nurture innovation along with providing investments. These platforms are – Techstars mentorship-driven Accelerator Program, Techstars Startup Programs, Techstars Venture Capital Fund, and Techstars Corporate Innovation Partnerships. Some of the top brands supported by them are Bench, Digital Ocean, FullContact, SendGrid, and Zagster. TechStars have made more than 3,300 investments so far with 310 successful exits. 

500 Startups

500 Startups headquartered in San Francisco, California was founded in 2010 by Dave McClure and Christine Tsai. Their flagship early-stage startup program in San Francisco is 4 months long and offers a seed fund of $150K at the end of it. Applications for this are open year-long. Apart from this, 500 Startups offer diversified accelerator programs such as  500 LatAm accelerator, 500 Seoul Series-A Program, 500 Seoul Pre Series-A Program, 500 MENA Accelerator, 500 Saola Accelerator, 500 Kobe Accelerator, 500 Georgia Accelerator, Global Launch, Miami Growth Program, and Miami Founders Bootcamp. 500 Startups focuses on finance, financial services, and venture capital with a special provision for women-founded companies in the US. Some of the top brands that graduated out of 500 Startups are Twilio, Credit Karma, SendGrid, Grab, GitLab, Bukalapak, Canva, Udemy, TalkDesk, Intercom, Ipsy, MakerBot, Wildfire, and Viki. Over the years 500 Startups have made 2,600 odd investments with 288 successful exits. 

The Alchemist accelerator

The Alchemist accelerator headquartered in San Francisco was founded in 2012 by Ravi Belani. It is a 6-month intensive online program and offers $36K as seed money mostly in the form of SAFE on graduation. Each cohort is limited to 25 teams with rolling application deadlines throughout the year. The Alchemist accelerator targets early-stage ventures that monetize from enterprises and not consumers. They are sector agnostic as such but encourage innovations in Industrial IoT, FinTech, Cybersecurity, Climate Tech, Digital Health, and Diversity. Some of the renowned alumni of the Alchemist accelerator are LaunchDarkly, Rigetti Quantum Computing, mPharma, Matternet, and Mightyhive. This accelerator program has made 542 investments and 37 successful exits so far. 

Dreamit Ventures

Dreamit ventures were founded in 2007 by David Bookspan, Elliot Menschik, Karen Griffith Gryga, Michael Levinson, and Steve Welch. Headquartered in Greater New York Area, East Coast, and Northeastern US, Dreamit is for early-stage startups who have early revenue or pilots and are ready to scale. They target three verticals –Healthtech, Securetech, and Urbantech. Applications are open throughout the year. Participants are presented with two ‘customer sprints’ (two of Jan, Apr, July, Oct) and two ‘investor sprints’ (two of Feb, Jun, Nov). Schedules are worked out with individual startups based on their needs. One or two companies are accepted in each vertical per month. Some notable alumni of Dreamit ventures are LevelUp, Trendkite, SeatGeek, HouseParty, Adaptly, Wellth, Biomeme, Tissue Analytics, Redox, Eko Devices, Raxar, Cylera, and Elevate. Over the years Dreamit has made 373 investments and 38 successful exits. 

AngelPad

AngelPad, headquartered in San Francisco, California, was founded in 2010 by Thomas Korte and Carine Magescas. It is one of the best in the business and often compared to Y Combinator. Every 6 months AngelPad selects 15 teams to work together for 3 intensive months. Their focus is on early-stage venture & seed companies in SaaS, Marketplaces, Core Technology, Advertising, API, Mobile, Healthcare, AI, Data, B2B, B2C including drones. They place a special focus on women-founded companies. Some of their notable alumni include Buffer, CoverHound, MoPub, Postmates, Astrid, Drone Deploy, Ribbon, Pipedrive, Rolepoint, and Vungle. Since its inception, AngelPad has made 175 investments and 36 successful exits. 

Startupbootcamp

Startupbootcamp headquartered in London was founded in 2010 by Aldo de Jong, Alex Farcet, Carsten Kolbek, Patrick Zeeuw, Ruud Hendriks at Copenhagen, Denmark. They run specialized startup accelerator programs at key locations such as San Francisco, Amsterdam, Cape Town, Chengdu, Berlin, Dubai, Hartford, Istanbul, Rome, London, Melbourne, Miami, Mumbai, Mexico City, New York, and Singapore. Overall they have 21 unique accelerator programs across diverse industries and geographies that help seed and venture stage startups realize their dreams. Their programs typically span over 3 months. Some of their notable alumni are 1SDK, 24sessions, 315studio, Absolute Collateral, Accerion, Adapt ready, Aerobotics, BetterSense, CherryPay, Deemly, Findair, Genoplan, Hy2Care, Joyride, Localsensor, Mespo, Noisli, Omnic, Payit, RealRate, Sarafan Technology, Teraki, UBank, VeriSmart, WayApp Pay, Zeguro, and Zilra. Over the years Startupbootcamp has made 530 odd investments and had 32 successful exits.     

Boost VC

Boost VC founded in 2012 by Adam Draper and Brayton Williams, in San Mateo, California is a sci-fi technology-focused startup accelerator. Boost VC specifically targets Bitcoin, Blockchain, and Virtual Reality markets. Their programs back startups in the seed, series A, initial coin offerings, and pre-seed rounds. Applications are accepted twice a year for a 3-month intensive accelerator program. Boost VC invests $500K in 20 startups each year. Some of their star alumni are Coinbase, Etherscan, Sidequest, Wave, Volley, Yac, Virtuleap, Elektra Labs, The Sun Exchange, and 3DLOOK. Since its inception, Boost VC has made 251 stellar investments with 24 successful exits.    

Blueprint health

Blueprint Health is a 12-week on-site intensive accelerator program based in New York City. Founded by Brad Weinberg, Mathew Farkash in 2011, Blueprint Health focuses on nurturing technology-based healthcare companies. Half of the companies they choose are in the early development stage while the other half are well on their way to generating revenues. Some of their notable alumni are AdhereTech, Aidan, Blue Mesa, Board Vitals, Care Coach, Cleanslate, Daisy Bill, Decisive Health, DocDelta, EnHatch, FirstHand, GlucoIQ, Healthify, Healthy Bytes, Incent Fit, Keona Health, Lumere, Medikly, Medpilot, NexHealth, Parable, Position Health, Rapport, RubiconMD, SimplifiMed, TapGenes, Wellsbi, and WellTrackOne. Over the years, Blueprint Health has made 83 successful investments and 11 exits so far.      

Imagine K12

Imagine K12 headquartered in Silicon Valley is an accelerator program specifically designed to nurture startups working in the EduTech sector. It was founded in 2011 by Alan Louie, Geoff Ralston, Nolan Amy, and Tim Brady with the sole purpose of changing the vision for education. Since 2016, K12 has collaborated with Y Combinator by creating a special education vertical within the Y Combinator structure. Some brands that have successfully graduated from Imagine K12 are Panorama, ClassDojo, NoRedInk, Remind, Socrative, BloomBoard, LearnSprout, RaiseMe, CodeAcademy, EdPuzzle, Hapara, GoalBook, SchoolMint, Showbie, Clever, Freckle, Kaizena, TeachBoost, Make School, and EdShelf. Imagine K12 has 53 unique investments and 9 exits to its credit to date. 

Nxtp Labs

Nxtp Labs was founded in 2011 by Ariel Arrieta, Francisco Coronel, Gonzalo Costa, Marta Cruz, and Martin Hazan. Based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, they are a venture capital firm focused on supporting early-stage and seed companies in Latin America. They normally engage in seed and Series-A funding. Nxtp.labs provides the first stages of institutional funds that range between $500K – $2M USD. The industries focused on are Cloud & SaaS, Logistics Tech, Fintech, B2B Marketplaces, AI/Information services, and Internet Security. Some of their portfolio companies include 123Seguro, Amaro, betterfly, Cobli, Fligoo, Inventa, Kinedu, Moni, Pomelo, QuadMinds, Securitize, Sirena, Spline, WorcketW, and Workana. Nxtp.labs have made 247 investments and 22 successful exits so far.  

Beta Spring

Beta Spring is one of the top startup accelerator programs for technology-driven seed-stage companies. It was founded in 2009 by Allan Tear, Jack Templin, and Owen Johnson. Headquartered in Boston, Beta Spring’s flagship program is a 12-week accelerator, twice a year, providing mentorship and a seed fund to participant companies. In 2015, Beta Spring launched another pioneer accelerator program called RevUp. This program focuses on startups with the primary goal of ‘revenue’. With RevUp, Beta Spring replaced its equity investment model with a revenue royalty structure. In this program, they do not demand equity but recover costs as a percentage of the startup revenue over a period of 36 months after graduation. Top brand supported by Beta Spring is Recur Outdoors, AstroPrint, Quitbit, APE Systems, itsDapper, Care Thread, Pennant, Crunchbutton, Sitefly, and TennisHub. To date, Beta Spring has a tally of 73 investments and 5 successful exits. 

Founder Fuel

Founder Fuel is a 4-month accelerator program based in Canada. It was founded initially as Real Ventures in 2011 by Alan MacIntosh, Ian Jeffrey, Jean-Sebastian Cournoyer, and John Stokes. Founder Fuel focuses on seed-stage companies using technology and business model innovation to create value in expanding markets. Their demo days are one of the largest in Canada. Some of their pioneer alumni companies are Sonder, Transit, Mejuri, Bus.com, Unsplash, XpertSea, Login Radius, BenchSci, and Ready Education. Over the years, Founder Fuel has made 94 investments and 13 successful exits so far.

Alpha Lab

Alpha Lab, based in Pittsburgh, was founded in 2008 as one of the first ten startup accelerator programs worldwide. Alpha lab focuses on industries like Advertising, Augmented Reality, B2B, B2C, Biotechnology, E-Commerce, Energy, Enterprise, Finance, FinTech, Life Science, Marketing, Mobile, Retail Technology, and Virtual Reality. Alpha Lab was originally founded by Innovation Works, an early-stage seed fund, to focus on technology-driven startups. Other programs of Innovation Works include hardware and life sciences focused accelerators – AlphaLab Gear, AlphaLab Health, and a unique accelerator program called Startable exclusively for teen entrepreneurs. Some notable alumni of this program are NoWait, Jazz, Black Locus, Shoefitr, Accel Diagnostics, blastPoint, caregogi, credible, Gridwise, HoneyComb, NetBeez, Sheepy, Suitable, WattLearn, ZaaBox , and The Zebra. Over the years Alpha Lab has made 104 investments and 7 successful exits.

NFX

NFX was founded in 2015 as a seed-stage accelerator. Headquartered in San Francisco, NFX was started by James Currier, Pete Flint, Stan Chudnovsky, and Gigi Levy-Weiss. This is a founder-centric accelerator program focused on providing software backup to young founders. They invest in seed and early stage-A startups with funds ranging from $500K – $5M. Some of the notable alumni are Lev, Tomo, Latitude, Firefly, Spike, Candex, Let’s Do This, Hometalk, Mammoth Biosciences, Incredible Health, Golden Key, Grabr, Zubale, La Haus, Stoke Space, and Kwik one-push. To date, NFX has made 248 investments and 26 successful exits. 

Axel Springer Plug and Play

Axel Springer Plug and Play (ASPnP) accelerator program is a joint venture of Plug and Play Tech Centre and Axel Springer. Founded by Joerg Rheinboldt, Luise Gruner, Robin Haak, and Saeed Amidi in 2013, this is a global accelerator based in Berlin. They are a pre-seed accelerator, home to digital entrepreneurs. Recently Axel Springer has collaborated with Porche to launch a new accelerator program called the APX specifically for digital business models in Berlin. While Plug and Play alone run more than 60 accelerator programs across the globe. Focused industries are – Fintech, Insurtech, Brand & Retail, Internet of Things, Mobility, Health, Supply Chain, Real Estate & Construction, Food & Beverage, Travel & Hospitality, Energy, New Materials & Packaging, Smart Cities, Sustainability, Enterprise Tech, Media & Ad, Agtech, Animal Health, Startup Autobahn, Safetytech, and some region-specific programs. Some famous brands that graduated from this accelerator are ChatChamp, RoomAR, Myo, TalentSpace, Purish, and StudySmarter. Over the years ASPnP has made 115 investments and 9 successful exits.

Flashpoint

Flashpoint is a startup accelerator founded in 2010 by Merrick Furst. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Flashpoint focuses on seed-stage technology startups. It is one of the most experienced tech accelerator studios in the world. Flashpoint accelerator program is backed by Georgia Tech. Some of their noted alumni are Gramarye Media, ParkENT Cycles, RoadSync, SwipeLoyalty, Synappio, and Enhance Works. To date, Flashpoint has made 6 successful investments. 

Eleven Start-up Accelerator

Eleven Start-up Accelerator is an early-stage venture seed fund based in Bulgaria. It was founded by Daniel Tomov, Dilyan Dimitrov, Ivaylo Simov, Jon Bradford in 2012 with a core focus on investing in technology companies. Their target industries are B2B, Fintech, Healthtech, Future of Work, and Future of Food. Each cohort comprises of 12 teams and runs for 3 – 6 months. Their seed fund is worth EUR 150K. Some of their flagship companies are VERO Leasing, Product Lead, ONDO Smart Farming Solutions, SuperOkay, Escreo, MClimate, Metrilo, Enjoy Bikes, AYO, and BIOPIX-T. To date, Eleven Start-up Accelerator has made 282 investments and 2 successful exits. 

Le Camping

Le Camp, founded in 2015 in Quebec, is a flagship accelerator program of Québec International, Québec’s metropolitan economic development agency. Le Camp focuses on technology-driven companies in their startup or pre-startup phase. These programs are 6 – 24 months and are specific to the business stage – Pre-startup (Mentor Validated Products), Startup (FastTrac program), Growth (Traction Program), and Internationalization (Softlanding & ConnectQC Program). Promising brands participating in their accelerator right now are Aitera, Alfred, BioMark Diagnostics, Animora, BioTwin, Bloop, DeLeaves, CyberSwat, Dispo, DOmedic, Domely, Fika,ELO, Equi-GO, Ethnocare, ExEats, GeoMate, GPHY, HerbiaEra, Hoodi, Invicto, Tempeus, Kognitions, MOS, Nexus Robotics, Noos, Octane technologies, Omy, Optania, RapidBar, Shapeshift, Regeneau, Solugen, Xpense, and Weego.

Wayra

Wayra is one of the world’s most technology driven open innovation accelerators spread across 7 hubs and 9 countries. Wayra was setup by Telefonica’s CEO  José María Álvarez-Pallete in Columbia in 2011. Telefonica being a Spanish multinational telecommunications company provides a great platform for startup founders who are part of the Wayra accelerator program. In the UK, Wayra has collaborated with strategic partners to run accelerator programs specific to Health Tech, AI, and BlockChain startups. Some of their latest investments are Ritmo, Solum, Councilbox, Bankuish, Watchity, Fuell, IDoven, Liip, Ebre Drone, and Flash Park. Their noted alumni include e-bot7, Wayin, Sirena, Cinepapaya, Busportal, PixelPin, Positive ID, Trustev, Dada Room, and Gudog. To date, Wyra has made 1200 odd investments with 37 successful exits.

Alternative to Startup Accelerators 

It is true that the benefits of startup accelerator programs are unparalleled. But, for startups, are they the only shot to success? Maybe not! Here are some alternatives:

• Incubators: Incubators are often thought to be the same as accelerators. Though they might resemble accelerators in terms of offering mentorship, networking, and a dedicated co-working space they differ by the facts that:
  • They may not demand equity or grant capital
  • No ‘Demo days’
  • Targeted for later-stage companies
  • Long term engagement 
• Others: The rest of the alternatives for accelerator and incubator programs are made up of individual routes to angels, venture capitalists, fundraising consultancies, and the most common one – bootstrapping. All of these routes are driven by the startup founder with varying chances of mentorship or constructive feedback. The startup will be out in the market on its own.  

Record & Manage Your Company Investors or Shareholders Using Eqvista 

Startup founders must have a good understanding of equity management from the start of operations. As we see, all early-stage accelerator programs demand equity in exchange for participation. The equity game only becomes complex by the day with the addition of new investors and subsequent equity-based employee benefit plans. Thus, it is best to automate the equity management process as soon as possible.

Eqvista is one of the leading software providers in this category. With years of equity management experience across diverse industries, this software is designed for a seamless equity experience for all startup founders. We also have a team of qualified valuation analysts providing 409a valuations to clients in all industries. Read on to know about our range of services. For further queries, reach us today.