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Accelerators are designed to help seed companies grow into successful businesses, and choosing the right one can mean the difference between an advantage or challenge for early-stage startups. San Francisco is teeming with some of the best startup accelerators in the country and choosing the right one to accelerate your company’s growth can be crucial to success.
Top 10 Accelerators in San Francisco
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1. 500 Startups
500 Startups is a global venture capital firm with a network of startup programs headquartered in Silicon Valley with over $454M in committed capital across 4 main funds and 15 thematic funds. They have invested in 2,200+ technology startups globally since its inception in 2010 including Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), Credit Karma, SendGrid, Grab, GitLab, Bukalapak, Canva, Udemy, TalkDesk, Intercom, Ipsy, MakerBot (acquired by SSYS), Wildfire (acquired by GOOG), and Viki (acquired by Rakuten).
500 Startups support startups via their Seed Accelerator Programs which emphasize digital marketing, customer acquisition, lean startup practices, and fundraising for pre-Seed companies. It contributes to the development of innovation ecosystems by supporting startups and investors through educational programs, events, conferences, and partnerships with corporations and governments around the world.
The team of 150 people based in 20 countries manage venture investments across 74 countries and speak over 25 languages. In addition to investments, they are passionate about helping build viable startup ecosystems around the world and run educational programs, events and conferences, and partnerships globally. Their investment team and mentor network has operational experience at companies such as PayPal, Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Apple.
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Website: www.500.co
Founded: 2010
Top Industries active in: Software, E-Commerce and Internet.
Number of Investments: 2,819
Exits: 345
500 Startups's most notable exits include Animoca Brands, Twilio, and Recurly.
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2. Alchemist Accelerator
Alchemist is a venture-backed accelerator focused on accelerating the development of seed-stage ventures that monetize from enterprises (not consumers). CB Insights rated Alchemist the top accelerator in 2016 based on median funding rates of its grads (YC was #2). The accelerator’s primary screening criteria is on teams, with primacy placed on having distinctive technical co-founders. The organization provides seed investment into companies it admits (typically $36K), and provides founders a structured path to traction, fundraising, mentorship, and community over the course of a 6 month program. Our backers include many of the top corporate and VC funds in the Valley -- including Khosla Ventures, DFJ, Cisco, GE, next47(Siemens), and Salesforce, among others. The accelerator seeds around 75 enterprise-monetizing ventures / year. Notable alumni include LaunchDarkly, Rigetti Quantum Computing, mPharma, Matternet, and Mightyhive.
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Website: www.alchemistaccelerator.com
Founded: 2012
Top Industries active in: Software, Artificial Intelligence and Information Technology.
Number of Investments: 568
Exits: 48
Alchemist Accelerator's most notable exits include Rigetti Computing, Yaydoo, and Utrust.
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3. HAX
HAX is a venture capital-based program dedicated to accelerating startups with a hardware element. Their program operates across two locations, San Francisco and Shenzhen, giving founders the resources necessary to move with lightning speed.
Teams accepted into the program will focus on rapid iteration of prototyping in many forms. This includes physical models, technology iterations, user interaction studies, volumetric studies, marketing messaging, business plans and launch strategies. With the help of HAX’s full-time staff, mentors, partners, and startup community, they’ll also work with you on developing a scalable business plan.
As teams are ready to take their product to market, they’ll head to San Francisco to work with HAX on business development, fundraising, and growth. This stage emphasizes introductions to corporates, investors, partners and press. It also focuses on helping teams secure their first round of funding, as well as gain first-revenue and partnership traction.
HAX is an SOSV program. SOSV is a global venture capital firm that operates startup venture programs around the world. SOSV had more than 1,000 portfolio companies and $950 million in assets under management.
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Website: www.hax.co
Founded: 2011
Top Industries active in: Software, Hardware and Robotics.
Number of Investments: 500
Exits: 11
HAX's most notable exits include Riot Games, Roadie, and AiSight.
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4. LAUNCH
We don’t make profits from our events, but instead, through angel investing. We co-host the best events in the industry with a select group of invited partners who think as we do.
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Website: www.launch.co
Founded: 2011
Top Industries active in: Software, Internet and E-Commerce.
Number of Investments: 438
Exits: 40
LAUNCH's most notable exits include Abra, Gigster, and Robinhood.
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5. IndieBio
IndieBio is the world’s first accelerator devoted to startups using biology to solve the world's largest problems. IndieBio is an SOSV program. SOSV is a global venture capital firm that operates startup accelerator investment programs. At the close of 2020, SOSV had more than 1,000 portfolio companies and $855 million in assets undermanagement.
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Website: www.indiebio.co
Founded: 2014
Top Industries active in: Biotechnology, Health Care and Medical.
Number of Investments: 378
Exits: 3
IndieBio's most notable exits include Aminolabs, Jungla, and Amaryllis Nucleics.
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6. Village Global
Village Global is an early stage venture capital firm backed by some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs.
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Website: www.villageglobal.vc
Founded: 2017
Top Industries active in: Software, Financial Services and FinTech.
Number of Investments: 281
Exits: 6
Village Global's most notable exits include Cultivate, Strattic, and Traptic.
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7. AngelPad
AngelPad is a seed-stage accelerator program that finds product market fit, defining a target market to get first validation for a company.
AngelPad is a startup Accelerator & MicroVC Fund, founded by Thomas Korte & Carine Magescas in 2010. AngelPad is consistently ranked #1 U.S. Accelerator by MIT/Rice University's Accelerator Rankings Project.
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Website: www.angelpad.com
Founded: 2010
Top Industries active in: Software, Mobile and SaaS.
Number of Investments: 179
Exits: 37
AngelPad's most notable exits include AllTrails, Postmates, and Fieldwire.
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8. Desafia
Spain Tech Center is sporting a new brand. We've changed our name to DesafĂa but you can rely on the same quality programs to get actionable tools to plan your US market entry and execute on it.
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Website: www.sanfrancisco.desafia.gob.es
Founded: 2011
Top Industries active in: Software, Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence.
Number of Investments: 103
Exits: 7
Desafia's most notable exits include Wallbox, RubiconMD, and Blueliv.
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9. Heavybit
Heavybit is the leading investor in developer-first startups that turn visions into movements, products into platforms, and contributors into communities. Our partnership, team, and community of technical founders and 600+ domain experts have an unequaled track record of nurturing developer-first startups.
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Website: www.heavybit.com
Founded: 2013
Top Industries active in: Software, SaaS and Developer Tools.
Number of Investments: 83
Exits: 17
Heavybit's most notable exits include PagerDuty, TESTIM, and Keen.
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10. Nex Cubed
Nex Cubed is an investor and innovation partner that empowers startups, investors, corporates, and governments to bring new technologies to market, help rising companies scale, and provide paths to liquidity.
Through their global innovation platform that includes Sway Ventures (VC) and Altriarch (Private equity), they innovate, invest in, accelerate, and scale digitally-enabled companies. They accomplish this by developing Centers of Excellence (COE) around key verticals that are ripe for innovation. Each COE consists of best in class entrepreneurs, investment partners, industry experts, and government leaders.
Nex Cubed has established itself as a leader in early-stage innovation and acceleration, creating a global ecosystem of 3 industry-specific COEs (Frontier Tech, Digital Health, and FinTech), 81 portfolio companies, 20+ corporate partners, 100+ investment partners, 50+ strategic advisors, and over 140 mentors. To date, Nex Cubed portfolio companies have an aggregate value of over half a billion dollars and nearly 60% of the Nex Cubed portfolio is led by female or minority founders.
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Website: www.nex3.com
Founded: 2016
Top Industries active in: Health Care, Software and Artificial Intelligence.
Number of Investments: 77
Exits: 2
Nex Cubed's most notable exits include HyTrust and Butterfly Health.
