Landscape Study of Accelerators and Incubators in India

by the Global Accelerator Learning Initiative (GALI) 

This study, conducted by the ANDE India Chapter with the support of Autodesk Sustainability and Foundation, uses GALI’s Global Accelerator Survey to add clarity to the profile of accelerators and incubators in India – their structure, objectives, goals, funding, and the financial and non-financial support that they offer.

 Data Highlights:

Sample Characteristics

• University accelerators and incubators made up the largest portion of the respondents, at nearly one-third.
• Two-thirds ran their first acceleration or incubation program after 2013.

Sector Focus and Impact Objectives

• Over half of the respondents indicated a focus on energy or environment.
• Three-quarters work specifically with ventures that have a social or environmental impact objective.

Program Structure

• With a median size of 9 and an 11 percent acceptance rate, cohorts were small, programs were selective, and early-stage ventures were mostly likely to receive support.
• One-third of respondents provide direct funding, and equity is the most popular investment instrument.

Funding Sources

• At 43 percent, philanthropic grants were the most common funding source for programs, followed by government support.
• One-third of the government-supported respondents received funds from the Department of Science and Technology.

Questions or comments? Contact Devyani Singh at devyani.singh@aspeninst.org.

A Fellowship Approach to Accelerating Social Entrepreneurs

By Echoing Green

This white paper by Echoing Green shares lessons from its impact investing “inflection cohort” pilot program. The inflection cohort supported 10 social entrepreneur Fellow alumni leading for-profit and hybrid social enterprises. Echoing Green's goal was to support them through a common, critical inflection moment: transitioning from early-stage funding to raising more sophisticated institutional growth capital. By sharing Echoing Green's inflection cohort approach and noting a variety of accelerator models of support, the organization aims to identify strategies that other programs can build on to enable early-stage entrepreneurs to grow, attract investment, and deliver greater impact.

The Impact of Entrepreneurship Database Program 2015 Mid-Year Data Summary
September 2015

by the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs and Social Enterprise @ Goizueta, Emory University

The Global Accelerator Learning Initiative (GALI), a collaboration between ANDE and Emory University, is designed to explore – and answer - key questions about enterprise acceleration including: Do acceleration programs contribute to revenue growth? Do they help companies attract investment? Do they work as well for developing-world impact entrepreneurs as they do for developed-world tech entrepreneurs?

This report summarizes application data collected from 3,113 early-stage ventures entrepreneurs who applied to participating accelerator programs during 2013, 2014 and early 2015. 

Entrepreneurship and Acceleration: Questions from the Field 
February 2015

by the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs and Social Enterprise @ Goizueta, Emory University

In this brief, we use data from the Entrepreneurship Acceleration Research Initiative in order to respond a question submitted by the MasterCard Foundation about Youth Entrepreneurship in Africa: "At The MasterCard Foundation, we have a portfolio of youth entrepreneurship projects that we support in Sub Saharan Africa. We’re always looking for data to better understand the space and to inform our programming. I’m wondering if you could share any data by ages 18-24 and 25-30, and by African country or region if possible. Do you see anything interesting under these parameters?"