Best of 2019: Top 10 accelerators in the European ecosystem!

Startup accelerators play a major role in the growth of startups as these back the companies during the nascent stage and help them turn successful. So, to help tech startup founders get the support of the right accelerators, the research team at Startup Heatmap has come up with an interesting report about the accelerators of Europe.

Here are some key findings of the report:

• Increased mobility with 30% more foreign-born founders since 2016
• Fast Internationalisation as 55% of European startups establish international locations within in their first year
• Top Hubs are losing momentum as London and Berlin hit a 4-year low in popularity
• Founders increasingly rely on transnational networks, with the most eminent spanning between London, Berlin, Barcelona, Paris, and Lisbon
• Brexit divides European founders: Northern and Western countries lose faith, while CEE seems to gather around London
• Further, the report also revealed about the top accelerators in the European ecosystem. Notably, this is the first time that this research has ranked accelerators. This ranking is based on over 1,400 votes cast by 750 respondents including founders and others of the tech community.

So, let’s find out.

#1 Techstars London – 12.61% votes

Founders: David Cohen, David Brown, Brad Feld, Jared Polis
Founded year: 2013

Techstars is a global startup accelerator, which helps entrepreneurs in their journey to success. This accelerator connects founders with investors, experts, community leaders, mentors, and alumni so that they grow their businesses and take them to new heights. Back in 2013, the accelerator acquired Springboard and launched its first international accelerator program in London. Techstars London accelerator’s alumni include Classpass, DataRobot, DigitalOcean, Outreach, Pillpack, Remitly, SalesLoft, SendGrid, and Zipline.

#2 Seedcamp – 10.88% votes

Founders: Reshma Sohoni, Saul Klein
Founded year: 2007

Seedcamp is an accelerator that backs world-class entrepreneurs prior and makes them successful. This accelerator is not restricted to one specific sector and helps founders across categories network effectively. Seedcamp’s alumni comprises Revolut, wefox, pleo, Transferwise, UiPath, and others that are highly popular.

#3 Station F – 9.88% votes

Key people: Xavier Niel, Roxanne Varza
Founded year: 2016

Station F is a startup campus that has a central hub building offering dedicated services to the French tech startups. Those companies that join the startup accelerator program have to stay for at least three months and can send a maximum of 15 employees. Station F offers the best resources and knowledge to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses. They will benefit from the community and meet other successful entrepreneurs. Station F alumni comprises foodvisor, Vitality, wilov, SnapCall and many more amazing startups.

#4 EIT Digital Accelerator – 8.59% votes

Head of EIT Digital Accelerator: Dolf Wittkämper
Founded year: 2012

One of the leading accelerators of Europe, EIT Digital Accelerator provides tailor-made growth support for European tech scaleups by helping secure international customers and raise capital. Since 2012, the accelerator has supported 300+ startups who raised over €800 million in investment, with more than €110 million directly facilitated by the accelerator.

Recently, ten more scaleups joined their programme after winning the EIT Digital Challenge, among them are Wonderflow, Oculavis, Sidekickhealth, Zelros and QuoScient.

Also, last week EIT Digital Accelerator has been recognised as World’s Top Public Business Accelerator by the UBI Global. Here’s a link to the full report. 

#5 Techstars Berlin – 7.68% votes

Program Manager: Vera Montacuti
Founded year: Germany in 2015

Berlin is one of the fastest growing startup ecosystems in Europe. As the city attracts founders from across Europe, it also has popular investors and accelerators to nurture these startups and help them grow. Since 2015, Techstars Berlin has helped over 100 startups turn successful. In 2019, Techstars Berlin has invested in Anytype, Cassiopeia, Eversend, hiveonline, and others.

#6 Founders Factory – 7.59% votes

Founders: Brent Hoberman, Henry Lane Fox
Founded year: 2015

This one was was established to help early-stage startups become sustainable and viable businesses. It has developed a unique studio model and accelerator program to help startups find market/product fit quickly. The accelerator also solves operational and strategic challenges faced by startups. The company has built a team of 70 digital specialists in London providing hands-on support to these startups. The alumni of Founders Factory include Aviva, Sampler, and ChargedUp among others.

#7 Axel Springer Plug and Play – 6.16% votes

Managing Director: Jörg Rheinboldt
Founded year: 2013

Axel Springer Plug and Play runs a 100-day acceleration program providing startups with a place to work, find out opportunities and funding. Even after the 100-day program, the accelerator continues to offer support to the startups and helps entrepreneurs throughout their journey. In addition to investing money, Axel Springer Plug and Play connects companies with clients, investors, and mentors. Some notable startups that are a part of the accelerator’s alumni include InStaff, Milo Networks, Orat.io, ShareTheMeal, etc.

#8 TheFamily – 5.19% votes

Founders: Alice Zagury, Nicolas Colin, Oussama Ammar
Founded year: 2013

TheFamily is one of the accelerators that stands up for the entrepreneurs and helps them keep up with their ambition. The company lets startups access successful founders, key industry players, and thought leaders in an easy way. The accelerator is all ready to fight for entrepreneurs and has won many high-profile battles for its startups. It helps them manage chaos and grow. Some startups supported by TheFamily are Agricool, HealthCube, FretLink, jow, PayFit, etc.

#9 50 Partners – 5.14% votes

Founders: Charles Fourault, Jerome Masurel
Founded year: 2012

50 Partners is a startup support program built by 50 experienced entrepreneurs who select and support promising early-stage startups. The partners get financially and operationally involved with the supported startups through mentoring sessions and help them get access to financing. 50 Partners helps promising tech entrepreneurs build success stories in B2B and B2C. Animaute, Biomede, botmind, Cleany, brigad and others are supported by this accelerator.

#10 hub:raum – 4.90% votes

Founded year: 2012

hub:raum is a tech incubator of Deutsche Telekom. It brings early-stage startups and the leading European telco together. hub:raum strives to ignite innovation transfer and creates new business opportunities for both accelerators and startups. These startups benefit from seed investments, co-innovation programs, and shortcut to assets, knowledge, and customers of the telco. It has worked with hundreds of startups in Berlin, Tel-Aviv, and Krakow. hub:raum has invested in startups such as CloudStorm, Twyla, etc.

Main image picture credits: EIT Digital

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