San Francisco, home to Silicon Valley, is the undisputed capital of startups and has long been synonymous with entrepreneurship. Most of the world’s biggest startups (Dropbox, Airbnb, Doordash, and countless others) were conceived in the Bay Area, and received their first funding from notable San Francisco-based startup accelerators like Y Combinator and 500 Startups.
As part of our going series of free fundraising resources and investor lists for founders, this article will explore the top 10 startup accelerators (ranked by the number of portfolio companies) based in San Francisco, with details on each accelerator’s investment focus, history and portfolio size.
1. Y Combinator
Y Combinator is the leading startup accelerator for entrepreneurs. Since 2005, YC has invested in over 4,500 companies, including Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, Reddit, Instacart, DoorDash, and Coinbase. Today, YC has built the most powerful startup community in the world alongside the products and programs to support founders for the life of their company.
- Founded: 2005
- Portfolio Companies: 5000
- Website: ycombinator.com
2. 500 Startups
500 Startups is a global venture capital firm with a network of startup programs headquartered in Silicon Valley with over $454M in committed capital across 4 main funds and 15 thematic funds. They have invested in 2,200+ technology startups globally since its inception in 2010 including Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), Credit Karma, SendGrid, Grab, GitLab, Bukalapak, Canva, Udemy, TalkDesk, Intercom, Ipsy, MakerBot (acquired by SSYS), Wildfire (acquired by GOOG), and Viki (acquired by Rakuten). 500 Startups support startups via their Seed Accelerator Programs which emphasize digital marketing, customer acquisition, lean startup practices, and fundraising for pre-Seed companies. It contributes to the development of innovation ecosystems by supporting startups and investors through educational programs, events, conferences, and partnerships with corporations and governments around the world. The team of 150 people based in 20 countries manage venture investments across 74 countries and speak over 25 languages. In addition to investments, they are passionate about helping build viable startup ecosystems around the world and run educational programs, events and conferences, and partnerships globally. Their investment team and mentor network has operational experience at companies such as PayPal, Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Apple.
- Founded: 2010
- Portfolio Companies: 2819
- Website: 500.co
3. Alchemist Accelerator
Alchemist is a venture-backed accelerator focused on accelerating the development of seed-stage ventures that monetize from enterprises (not consumers). CB Insights rated Alchemist the top accelerator in 2016 based on median funding rates of its grads (YC was #2). The accelerator’s primary screening criteria is on teams, with primacy placed on having distinctive technical co-founders. The organization provides seed investment into companies it admits (typically $36K), and provides founders a structured path to traction, fundraising, mentorship, and community over the course of a 6 month program. Their backers include many of the top corporate and VC funds in the Valley — including Khosla Ventures, DFJ, Cisco, GE, next47(Siemens), and Salesforce, among others. The accelerator seeds around 75 enterprise-monetizing ventures / year. Notable alumni include LaunchDarkly, Rigetti Quantum Computing, mPharma, Matternet, and Mightyhive.
- Founded: 2012
- Portfolio Companies: 568
- Website: alchemistaccelerator.com
4. HAX
HAX is a venture capital-based program dedicated to accelerating startups with a hardware element. Their program operates across two locations, San Francisco and Shenzhen, giving founders the resources necessary to move with lightning speed. Teams accepted into the program will focus on rapid iteration of prototyping in many forms. This includes physical models, technology iterations, user interaction studies, volumetric studies, marketing messaging, business plans and launch strategies. With the help of HAX’s full-time staff, mentors, partners, and startup community, they’ll also work with you on developing a scalable business plan. As teams are ready to take their product to market, they’ll head to San Francisco to work with HAX on business development, fundraising, and growth. This stage emphasizes introductions to corporates, investors, partners and press. It also focuses on helping teams secure their first round of funding, as well as gain first-revenue and partnership traction. HAX is an SOSV program. SOSV is a global venture capital firm that operates startup venture programs around the world. SOSV had more than 1,000 portfolio companies and $950 million in assets under management.
- Founded: 2011
- Portfolio Companies: 500
- Website: hax.co
5. LAUNCH
LAUNCH is on a mission to support founders and inspire innovation. Their small team of rebels put on the largest startup conference in the world, the LAUNCH festival, the podcast This Week In Startups and run the LAUNCH Incubator. They invest millions of dollars into 40 promising founders a year, some of which go on to change the world. Most of these founders spend 12 weeks in their intense accelerator.
- Founded: 2011
- Portfolio Companies: 438
- Website: launch.co
6. IndieBio
IndieBio is the world’s first accelerator devoted to startups using biology to solve the world’s largest problems. IndieBio is an SOSV program. SOSV is a global venture capital firm that operates startup accelerator investment programs. At the close of 2020, SOSV had more than 1,000 portfolio companies and $855 million in assets undermanagement.
- Founded: 2014
- Portfolio Companies: 378
- Website: indiebio.co
7. Village Global
At Village Global, early-stage capital is just the beginning. They help you go faster with $500M AUM, an vibrant founder community, expert advice, and game-changing intros. Chaired by Reid Hoffman and backed by Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and more, Village Global boasts ‘the best network in tech.’
- Founded: 2017
- Portfolio Companies: 281
- Website: villageglobal.vc
8. AngelPad
AngelPad is a seed-stage accelerator program based in NYC and San Francisco. Since 2010, they have launched more than 150 companies. Every 6 months, they select about 15 teams from a huge pool of applicants (usually around 2000) to work with us. While other accelerators have decided to “scale” and take on more and more companies or launch more and more cities, they have stayed true to their original goal: Find awesome companies with founders to work with and spend three very intense months with them. This focus has paid off, as AngelPad has risen to be the #1 Accelerator in the U.S. (based on a real study from MIT/Brown University) and Strictly VC called them the “Anti-Y Combinator“. During the program, they work on everything from finding product market fit, defining a target market to getting first validation for the company. AngelPad is also instrumental in helping companies prepare for fundraising and of course for investor meetings.
- Founded: 2010
- Portfolio Companies: 179
- Website: angelpad.com
9. Desafia
Desafía San Francisco is a public initiative sponsored by ICEX and Red.es that helps Spanish technology companies scale faster and globally. Desafía advises, accompanies and connects with key agents, through experts within each ecosystem. Desafía is also a community of entrepreneurs, mentors and established companies.
- Founded: 2011
- Portfolio Companies: 103
- Website: sanfrancisco.desafia.gob.es
10. Heavybit
Heavybit is the leading investor in developer-first startups that turn visions into movements, products into platforms, and contributors into communities. Their partnership, team, and community of technical founders and 600+ domain experts have an unequaled track record of nurturing developer-first startups.
- Founded: 2013
- Portfolio Companies: 83
- Website: heavybit.com
11. Nex Cubed
Nex Cubed is an investor and innovation partner that empowers startups, investors, corporates, and governments to bring new technologies to market, help rising companies scale, and provide paths to liquidity. Through their global innovation platform that includes Sway Ventures (VC) and Altriarch (Private equity), they innovate, invest in, accelerate, and scale digitally-enabled companies. They accomplish this by developing Centers of Excellence (COE) around key verticals that are ripe for innovation. Each COE consists of best in class entrepreneurs, investment partners, industry experts, and government leaders. Nex Cubed has established itself as a leader in early-stage innovation and acceleration, creating a global ecosystem of 3 industry-specific COEs (Frontier Tech, Digital Health, and FinTech), 81 portfolio companies, 20+ corporate partners, 100+ investment partners, 50+ strategic advisors, and over 140 mentors. To date, Nex Cubed portfolio companies have an aggregate value of over half a billion dollars and nearly 60% of the Nex Cubed portfolio is led by female or minority founders.
- Founded: 2016
- Portfolio Companies: 77
- Website: nex3.com
Applying to a startup accelerator? Create the perfect pre-seed pitch deck:
Are you interested in learning how to write and design a winning pitch deck for your startup? You may be interested in our popular Accelerator Pitch Deck template — designed by experts who have helped startups close millions in funding from top investors. Here are some other resources for founders in the education space:
- How to create a pre-seed deck to pitch accelerators and angel investors
- Comprehensive recipe for the perfect pitch deck
