Meet top startup accelerators in Northern & Central and Eastern Europe

There are around 200 startup accelerators in Northern & Central and Eeastern Europe (NCEE). Some of them offer funding, other just services, and mentorship. Part of the programs take equity for support. Another are equity-free. Accelerators have various verticals and areas of interest. Some of them are stationary, other mixed or virtual programs. Some frameworks focus on sales, others on building MVP and making pilots. There are also programs with corporate partners.?

As a startup founder is not easy to pick the right accelerator or access the perfect one. So which program is the best? It depends on what you are looking for. Some of acceleration programs founded years ago are not active. So, it is a good idea to identify the leading programs that startups can currently benefit from. To prepare the following list, I have taken the following folds:

• Accelerators' activity in the last two years and number of accelerated startups
• I did not include programs that have been inactive for at least a year in the compilation
• I also did not include first-time accelerators or those which organized just one acceleration batch (even if it was massive)
• Due to a large number of countries in Northern and Central Europe, I choose the most active program from a given country for the compilation
• I do not limit programs to verticals, a form of acceleration, or the amount of provided funding
• The list includes only programs that define themselves as an accelerator

Data from Dealroom, Crunchbase, and accelerators' websites helped me with my analysis. I realize that in some cases, the data may not be accurate. Unfortunately, this is related to the fact that different databases contain different data, often incomplete. I tried to fix it by analyzing data from websites and social media profiles. Below, I present the list of top acceleration programs for startups from Northern and Central Europe.?

A summary you'll also find in the table at the end of the article.

#11 StartupYard - Prague, Czechia

StartupYard has welcomed 83 startups since 2011. The program is mentorship-based, and SY portfolio companies have raised over €49,1M so far. At StartupYard, startups simultaneously refine their products, define and strengthen their value propositions, find product/market fit, start vital business partnerships, and seek further investment if needed for rapid growth. Currently, the accelerator offers a remote program with 30 hours of business and fundraising acceleration. The remote lab is dedicated to deep tech startups looking to raise to €1M. In addition, the program offers funding up to €40k in the form of convertible notes.?

#10 Buildit Accelerator - Riga, Latvia

Buildit is an accelerator that supports hardware and IoT startups in turning an idea into a tangible, market-worthy product. At Buildit, you don't just get a product accelerator. You get a development partner that's invested in seeing you succeed. To get access to the program, you must have at least a working prototype or MVP. Buildit will also help you relocate to Riga and create your LLC in Latvia. The accelerator takes to a single batch of around ten teams. During 11 batches, over 70 startups from 18 countries graduated from Buildit!

#9 StartupLab - Oslo, Norway

A 3-month program where you can explore and utilize the broad network at StartupLab and get access to experienced founders, investors, and industry experts. The program is dedicated to Norwegian founders and companies. StartupLab works extra closely with many corporate partners, including large Norwegian companies like DNB, Schibsted, Telenor, DNV GL, Equinor, Orkla, OBOS AF-gruppen, Nye Veier, GC Rieber and many more.

#8 Eleven Accelerator Ventures, Sofia, Bulgaria

Eleven Accelerator Ventures is a small but close-knit and diverse team of professionals and entrepreneurs. Eleven supported more than 150 companies from launch to growth. The accelerator currently runs programs with corporate partners: Visa Innovation Program for fintech companies and SOinventure Program dedicated to health tech startups.

#7 TechMinsk - Minsk, Belarus

Founded in 2013, TechMinsk is designed to help top innovative startups from the region scale globally. Through 12 completed batches accelerator created a cohort of startups operating in different parts of the world. TechMinks offers access to +500 mentors, and its companies raised over $125M in funding. The program is relatively quick in comparison to other accelerators and takes around two weeks. For the best teams, TechMinks provides up to 50k € in funding.

#6 Techcelerator - Bucharest, Romania

Techcelerator is the most potent startups accelerator in Romania. The program supports local founders and startups and helps them in rapid growth of their businesses. Techcelerator also has a bold mission to strengthening the startup ecosystem in Romania. Program pumps startups with high-quality fuels: investment, top educational content and new marketing attack tools, link to attractive angels, investors and industry advisors, scale-up services, and last but not least, with promotion to world top startup events and communities.

#5 70ventures - Vilnius, Lithuania

I really like 70v approach, which is a proven B2B acceleration model with milestone-based financing. In the alumni portfolio, accelerator has over 80 companies. 70v focuses on revenue generation, helps to get first customers, systemize and automates sales workflow, and helps companies get ready for scaling. For startups with at least €20k MRR accelerator offers funding up to €300k. Some of 70v startups were able to skyrocket their sales by almost 1400%.

#4 Sting - Stockholm, Sweden

Sting Accelerate is for startups with a launched product or service that are looking to scale. Twice a year, accelerator picks around eight startups that will receive funding, business development support, recruitment & team development assistance, access to a network of mentors and business partners, marketing & communication support, and a place to work. Sting also offers an incubation program, and support of an investment arm that can follow up with the most promising startups from accelerator.

#3 Kiuas - Espoo, Finland

Located in the middle of Startup Sauna, Kiuas is like a stove that generates heat and makes startups hot. The program takes no equity and provides a tailor-made mentorship program. It also offers a lot of services beneficial for every startup. The typical batch in Kiuas contains 15-20 startups. The best companies can raise some funding through accelerators' contact networks of business angels and VC funds.

#2 Space3ac - Gdansk, Poland

Here we are. When we created Space3ac in 2015, I never expected to build one of the best-performing accelerators in this part of the world. We already have eight editions behind us, through which 134 startups have passed. As many as 70 of them we accelerated in the last two years! This year we plan to accept another 20-30 startups into the program. The accelerator specializes in bringing corporations and startups together to invent the future. We help small and big to test technologies. We provide funding without taking equity and work in the most prominent business center in Northern Poland - Olivia Business Centre. Startups are also supported by our network of mentors and the Black Pearls VC fund, which is willing to invest in the best projects. So far, we have worked with startups from 14 different countries, and we are eager for more.

#1 Startup Wise Guys - Tallinn, Estonia

A well-deserved first place goes to Estonia. Startup Wise Guys is a top-notch program that has backed a vast number of great startups. The program focuses on supporting B2B projects working in different areas. Besides acceleration and core funding, a large number of graduates also receive investments from the SWG fund. To date, startups from 40 countries have graduated from 19 editions of the program, and more are planned. In addition, 235 SWG graduates have raised over €5.6 billion in funding.

And here's the table: Top startup accelerators in Northern & Central Europe

If you have in your mind other excellent accelerators, please do not hesitate and let us know! We want to exchange our network with them and help their portfolio companies to do something meaningful.