European accelerators are going through an interesting time right now. For instance, TechStars Stockholm was all set to launch and then abruptly shut down. And I think it’s now commonly accepted that most accelerators outside of YCombinator can too be often ‘less than adequate’, to put it diplomatically. Perhaps an exception to this oft-repeated phrase, in my experience, is Entrepreneur First out of London/Europe (but now also in Asia), and even then that entity is slightly closer to a pre-accelerator in the way it assembles talent before it assembles the startups (although it does also fund its startups).
Having said that, accelerators still have a role to play in Europe’s emerging ecosystem. Admittedly, in the ‘developed’ countries of Western Europe, startups are generally better off skipping accelerators and raising directly from Angels, HNWs and pr...
