• Many companies — approximately 14% or 15% of the aggregate total across accelerators —  that did not qualify for our follow-on threshold did receive rounds of $750K or less are still alive and in process of raising larger rounds.
• Many seed rounds are completed but not publicly disclosed. Private market data is infamously difficult to track when data is not self-reported consistently. While I have no hard evidence to support this claim, I wouldn’t be surprised if the accelerators listed above have internal metrics that demonstrate portfolio follow-on rates that are 10 to 15 actual percentage points higher than noted here.
• The capital markets for larger seed rounds have remained difficult in recent years despite the growth in seed stage micro VC firms. This is especially true for inexperienced founding teams, which tend to be the most typical profiles for accelerator cohorts.

Necessary to compare apples-to-apples

While some may be surprised that companies coming out of the enterprise-focused Alchemist accelerator have received higher median funding amounts than Y Combinator, that’s easily explained by the delta in cohort sizes: Alchemist limits to 17 companies while Y Combinator has cohorts that often exceed 120 companies.

Additionally, we used statistical median versus mean in our analysis, as heavy skew would present for Y Combinator, from unicorn companies such as Dropbox, Airbnb, and Instacart. When conducting a baseline analysis, it’s important to take into account cohort sizes and sector focus of the accelerator.

Geographical proximity important for venture funding

Significant geographical advantages appear for accelerators located in major tech centers when testing for probability of cohort companies receiving venture funding. To note, Portland Seed Fund and Capital Innovators saw their follow-on rates drop by 400 percent and 200 percent, respectively, when the filter of institutional capital was applied. While the narrative of venture funding ubiquity is nice, it hasn’t translated for these accelerators outside of four to six distinct geographies in the US.

While there are many qualitative reasons to join an accelerator outside of funding assistance, funding is and will always remain a critical driver to company scale. As a result, founders are well-served to assess funding track records of accelerators when deciding which programs to apply to. Admittedly, this information may not always be public, but should be a component of founder diligence.

The views of the author of this article are provided as-is and do not necessarily represent the views of First Republic Bank.