A startup accelerator program is an intensive business development program that supports founders and helps them turn their ideas into successful businesses. The support comes in a form of mentorship, affordable office spaces and some starting capital.
For fintech startups, there is an extensive list of programs in Europe to choose from. Today, we’ve compiled the top ten accelerators for fintech startups in Europe.
Seedcamp
Launched in 2007, Seedcamp is UK-based venture-capital accelerator offering seed funding to innovative European startups. In eight years, Seedcamp has backed almost 200 companies with one unicorn and 91% having raised further funding to a tune of US$350 million.
Some of Seedcamp’s success stories include TransferWise, Property Partner and Totems, acquired by Stripe earlier this year.
Startupbootcamp
Startupbootcamp is a Pan-European accelerator with annual programs in Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Dublin and Haifa.
Startupbootcamp fintech accelerator program runs in Singapore, New York and London.
Its London program consists in a three-month program that gives selected fintech startups the opportunity to collaborate with 400+ mentors, partners, and investors to build their products, access top markets in Europe, US and APAC, €15K in cash per team, €450K+ in partner services, and exposure to 200+ angels and VCs.
Level39
Level39 claims to be Europe’s largest technology accelerator for finance, retail, cyber-security and futures cities technology companies.
Established by Canary Wharf Group plc and headed up by Eric Van der Kleij, Level39 was opened in early-2013 by Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, and has quickly become an important part of Tech City.
Since its inception, Level39 has hosted over 1000 events, 90,000 visitors and countless global organizations and financial players.
Barclays Accelerator
Powered by Techstars, the Barclay Accelerator focuses on fintech startups and runs in four locations: New York, London, Cape Town and Tel Aviv.
Its 3-month program is designed to accelerate startups by giving them access to the bank’s network and mentorship from some of the smartest minds in the startup and fintech world.
Startups are given up to US$120,000 investment from Techstars as well as other corporate partner perks.
Fintech Innovation Lab
Fintech Innovation Lab is a program created by Accenture that gives the opportunity to an early and growth-stage companies to develop, trial and prove their proposition alongside the world’s leading banks.
The 12-week mentorship program runs in London, Hong Kong and New York.
Axel Springer Plug and Play Accelerator
Launched in 2013, the Axel Springer Plug and Play Accelerator is a Berlin-based accelerator that provides workshops, financing and coaching to selected trail-blazing digital entrepreneurs.
Its three-month program provides startups with office space in the heart of Berlin, networking, as well as €25,000. The program ends with the Demo Day, where startups will have the opportunity to pitch in front of an elite audience of local and international venture capital firms for additional seed and Series A funding. In the Cycle1 in 2013 they had the famous project Number26 in the programm, until then only 2 more Fintechs were in the cycles. So it’s time for supporting new fresh Fintech Startups.
LAUNCHub
LAUNCHub is a seed fund supporting the most promising entrepreneurs and digital startups in Southern and Eastern Europe. LAUNCHub invests in micro-seed and seed stages, tickets ranging from €30,000 to €200,000.
Since its inception in 2012, LAUNCHub has invested and committed €7.5 million in 60 startups from 10 countries in the South-East Europe region, including Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia, Croatia, Greece, Slovenia, Ukraine, Austria and Switzerland.
FINTECH Circle
London-based FINTECH Circle is composed of angel investors, entrepreneurs and senior executives from the banking and technology field and aims to leverage the combined resources, experience and connections of the group to achieve greater success in investing within the fintech space.
FINTECH Circle invests in startups with an average range of about £75K to £500K per company. Where more funds are required, co-investments with partner syndicates will be considered.
Fusion Fintech
Fusion is Switzerland’s first incubator focused on the fintech sector. Based in Geneva, Fusion selects about ten fintech startups from all over the world for a 12-month acceleration program.
The selected startups receive mentoring from sponsors and corporate, as well as testing, data and clients.
SIX Fintech Incubator F10
SIX FinTech Incubator F10 is the innovation center of SIX, launched in August.
In collaboration with fintech startups, the F10 team, based at Förrlibuckstrasse 10, has set up a complete innovation ecosystem with a dedicated staff, know-how, infrastructure and communities whose task is to drive further developments on Switzerland’s FinTech front and develop new technologies for SIX.
Image credit: Axel Springer Plug and Play.
