Over the last ten years, startup accelerators have continued to spread all around Europe. This model was originally born in 2005 with the launch of YCombinator, followed by Techstars in 2006. Seedcamp was the first accelerator founded in Europe, in 2007, and many others were created in the following years.
The objective of the European Accelerator Report released yesterday by Fundacity is to understand how the accelerator industry developed in Europe and how they contribute to the european startup ecosystem. 76 accelerators responded to the survey out of 128 accelerators contacted from all over Europe. 41% of the contacted accelerators decided not to respond to the survey because of privacy concerns and/or inactivity last year. The study included corporation-backed, government-funded and vertical accelerators, as well as U.S. accelerators with operations in Europe.
Total investment concluded in 2014 stands at €39,578,636 in 1,588 startups by 76 accelerators. The UK tops the investment ranks with €13.2m invested in 599 start-ups, followed by Spain with €6.2m in 101 start-ups, and Germany with €2.9m invested in 59 start-ups.
Hungarian accelerator Traction Tribe ranks alongside Wayra, Lanzder, Eleven, European Pioneers, Collider, Accelerace,and Rockstart as the most active accelerator-based investors in Europe in 2014.
There are around 100 startup accelerators in Europe and this number will keep growing in the near future. This surge in the number of accelerators is mainly due to advances in digital technology, which decreased the costs of starting a tech business, and created the opportunity to invest much smaller amounts of money than previously.
Accelerators, despite their business model being relatively young in Europe, seem to have established themselves as an attractive first investor for many early-stage startups. However, due to the lack of data, it is still difficult to realize an in-depth analysis and measure the real impact these accelerators have on the different ecosystems in Europe.
