The accelerator model has been a key part of the start-up and entrepreneurial scene for more than a decade.
In the United States, Y Combinator, an accelerator founded in 2005, has invested in more than 1,000 start-ups with a combined value estimated at $65bn. Among them, fi le storage site Dropbox, holiday rental site Airbnb and social news site Reddit.
Twice a year the company invests around $120,000 in a large number of start-ups (107 most recently) and invites them to move to Silicon Valley for three months for a programme designed to refi ne their company and pitch for investors. Each cycle culminates in a demo day where companies present their ideas to an invite-only audience.
Inspired by the success of these programmes, many of which are based in US start-up hub Silicon Valley, government bodies have been looking at the accelerator model with increasing interest to address their own innovation challenges.
