Accelerace invests in startups before anyone else believes in them: “We develop the next generation”

This post is also available in: Danish

Penneo. Trustpilot. Templafy. Graduateland.

These are just a few in the impressive track record of over 1000 startups the VC acceleratorAn accelerator is an intensive program that provides startups with mentorship, education, resources, and sometimes funding to accelerate their growth. More, Accelerace, has accelerated from the fragile pre-seed stage to today, where many have become unicorns and industry-leading players.

“Unlike others, we invest in pre-traction and first-time founders – companies that don’t yet have any evidence that they will succeed. We do this because it is on the journey from very early funding up to the seed roundA seed round is an early stage of fundraising in which a startup secures external capital to develop its business concept and create a minimum viable product. More that about half of all startups die. Therefore, this is where we can have the biggest impact on the Danish ecosystem,” Peter Torstensen, Managing Partner and CEO of Accelerace.

This mindset flows throughout the organization. Under the AllStar Mentors initiative, Accelerace’s most successful alumni return ‘home’ to the VC-accelerator to reinvest their time, skills and capital in the next generation of startups.

Standing on the shoulders of those who have already done it is one of the keys to success, Peter Torstensen explains.

“A thriving ecosystem is driven by successful founders. And the more of those we can create, who then reinvest their time and money, the greater a positive spiral we create. We want to take responsibility for investing in and developing the next generation of startup founders and ensuring the connection from them to the big unicorns.”

To develop the Danish ecosystem, Accelerace has started collecting data on all their startups. The ambition is to qualify how more startups can succeed.

“The Danish ecosystem has developed significantly over the last 15 years. But we still see a lot of great startups that, for one reason or another, don’t take the next step. That’s why we need to find the common denominators in the successful cases. Benchmarks you can lean on. Denmark still has a lot of untapped potential – and we want to be at the forefront of unleashing it,” says Peter Torstensen.

Accelerace

• Accelerace has invested in more than 200 companies and accelerated over 1000 since its establishment in 2008.
• In 2023, they launched Tools, their free online platform with courses and tools to help startups get product-market fitA product-market fit is the point at which a product or service has fulfilled a demand, resulting in satisfied and enthusiastic customers. More and raise money.