Ireland has three out of the top eight European start-up accelerator programmes in Europe, a new year-long study has revealed.
The study, commissioned by Kauffman Fellows Programme in the US and announced yesterday on TechCrunch Europe, listed the NDRC LaunchPad programme, the Propeller Venture Accelerator Fund and Startupbootcamp Ireland in 6th, 7th and 8th place, respectively.
The NDRC, which is funded by the Government and the private sector, replaced the former MIT MediaLab Europe R&D operation in Dublin City. Its LaunchPad programme provides up to €20,000 in seed funding. It provides support to successful small teams of up to three people through a 12-week intensive programme accelerating their concept or idea through to market-ready outputs.
Dublin City University’s Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship’s Propeller Venture Accelerator Fund has raised €1m in funding for early stage technology start-up companies. It plans to raise an additional €2m in the coming years. It aims to fund and incubate up to 24 early stage technology companies over the next two years.
It emerged in March that Startupbootcamp, a pan-European network of accelerators managed by TechStars, would launch its Dublin programme with IBM, Citi, Enterprise Ireland and Dublin City Council as partners. It is run out of Dublin by former Xing CFO Eoghan Jennings. Applications for the Dublin programme will open during the summer.
The top 8 accelerator programmes in Europe, according to TechCrunch and the Kauffman Fellows Programme are:
1. Seedcamp (pan-European)
2. Startup Bootcamp (Spain)
3. Startupbootcamp Denmark
4. Springboard (UK, pan-European)
5. Openfund (Greece/South Eastern Europe)
6. NDRC LauchPad (Ireland)
7. Propeller Venture Accelerator Fund (Ireland)
8. Startupbootcamp Ireland
