8 December 2023

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• Global network of organizations that

support entrepreneurship in developing
economies.
• Membership includes accelerators,
incubators, donors, investors,
academia, government, and more.
IMAGE • Operate from eight regional chapters,
including the East & Southeast Asia
PLACEHOLDER Chapter, based in Bangkok.
Accelerators are highly
selective, intensive
programs that provide
mentorship and training,
with the specific aim of
connecting early-stage
companies with investment.
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“Whereas incubators provide the

environments and resources to help

your ideas succeed, accelerators

compress years’ worth of learning and

growth into the span of a few months.”

- Harvard Business School

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Now, an
estimated
8,000 The accelerator model has spread
Model spread accelerators
globally, worldwide rapidly since 2005, with more than half
picked up by
govt and of the estimated 8,000 accelerators
First development
accelerator agencies
worldwide founded between 2014 and
launched in
2005 in Silicon 2020 (H. Davidson, 2021).
Valley

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Donors and government 63%

Corporates 54% While the first documented accelerators

were backed by investors, more and

Revenue-generating 39% more corporations, governments, and

donor agencies have started funding

accelerators with various end goals.

Investor-backed 27%

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Source: 2017 Global Accelerator Survey

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Global research initiative in partnership

with Emory University to study the
effectiveness of startup acceleration from
2015 - 2020, which resulted in:
• Publicly available dataset on 23,000+
entrepreneurs that applied to
accelerators globally.
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GALI has been made possible by generous support from USAID, the Argidius Foundation, the
Australian Government, GIZ, the Lemelson Foundation, Stichting DOEN, Omidyar Network, and • 20+ academic papers and two books.
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the Kauffman Foundation.
• Global directory of accelerators.
120+ accelerators with 23,000+ ventures in over 150 countries
 80%

60%

40%

Application
20%
1 Year

2 Years 0%
Revenue Growth Jobs Created
n Years
 80%

60%

40%

Application
20%
1 Year

2 Years 0%
Revenue Growth Jobs Created
n Years
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Accelerated ventures entered programs

with more revenue, employees, and

investment on average and continued to

grow at a faster pace than those rejected.

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• Accelerators allocate significant time and resources toward selecting
the most promising entrepreneurs (and are not always good predictors).

• Quality selection has a positive ecosystem effect – research in the

U.S. found that the presence of accelerators increased investment
activity at a regional level. (Fehderand Hochberg, 2014)

• Research has found that acceleration has a positive effect on ventures,

above and beyond selection.
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While outcomes are positive in the

aggregate, many individual
programs did not see positive
outcomes.

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Acceleration can also exacerbate

existing performance gaps for
women and other disadvantaged
founders.

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2020. Venture Capital and the Gender
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Financing Gap: The Role of Accelerators
There is no one “clear recipe”
for the best program design.
Rather, key lessons have
emerged on how acceleration
can be more impactful…and
the research points to the need
for a collaborative ecosystem
approach.
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The most salient finding in GALI

research is that peer learning is
the greatest value-add of
40%
acceleration, and that high-
performing programs emphasize
17% transparency and collaboration
among support enterprises.
High-performing programs Low-performing programs
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Source: GALI, 2019. Accelerating the Flow of Funds into
Early-stage Ventures.
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For example, many programs

- Entrepreneur interviewed for A Rocket or a
Runway? Examining Venture Growth During and
After Acceleration (GALI, 2020)
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that focus on investment
readiness lack meaningful
connections to potential
investors for participating
entrepreneurs.
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Entrepreneurs tend to cycle

through different accelerators
and incubators, which isn’t
always a bad thing…but it would
Source: GALI, 2019. Acceleration in Mexico Examining
Why Entrepreneurs Attend Multiple Programs be better if the pathway was
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Successful entrepreneurs
RING PRODUCTIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP COMMUNITIES OCTOBER 2018 1 KEY LESSONS ON GENERATING JOBS, and other highly connected
ECONOMIC GROWTH, AND INNOVATION
actors are essential for
helping ventures scale
through accessing
investment, partners, and
new customers.

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Source: Endeavor, 2018. Fostering Productive
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Entrepreneurship Communities: Key Lessons on
Generating Jobs, Economic Growth, and Innovation.