UK accelerators ranked highest in Europe for investment and start-up creation

UK start-up accelerator programmes invested $9.9m in businesses in 2015, according to The Global Accelerator Report 2015 from Gust and Fundacity.

The report suggested that UK accelerators are far outperforming their European neighbours such as Denmark ($4.8m) and Spain ($4.6m) and contributed to almost a quarter of the $41m invested in 2,574 start-ups by 113 European accelerators in 2015.

The UK’s accelerator schemes also helped to develop 1,124 start-ups (turning ideas into fully-fledged businesses) last year, second only to US programmes which accelerated 2,522 start-ups.

Entrepreneurial Spark, the UK accelerator which runs programmes in nine locations including Bristol, Cardiff, and Manchester, was identified as the “world’s most active accelerator” having accelerated 660 start-ups in 2015.

Edwina Johnson, chief operating officer of the Startupbootcamp UK accelerator, said of the findings:

“Europe now has some of the best accelerators in the world – with the advantage of years of experience, access to a diverse talent pool and some of the most advanced markets digitally to work within – just take Estonia and their e-Residency!”