12/01-18 - Press releases

Accelerace raises $1.7 million investment to help startups succeed

Accelerace has secured a $1.7 million investment from Færchfonden, The Danish Growth Fund and Symbion endorsing the valuable contribution Accelerace makes to the startup community. This investment will provide the additional resources Accelerace needs to expand its services to entrepreneurs. In particular, its consultancy, mentorship, access to industry experts, investors and larger corporations.

Since 2008, Accelerace has advised and professionalized over 800 start-up companies with visionary and forward-looking technologies to avoid the biggest pitfalls. A large number of the Accelerace startups raise investments within 12 months of exiting of the training program.

With this capital injection of $1.7 M from Færchfonden, The Danish Growth Fund and Symbion, Accelerace now sees opportunities that will benefit tomorrow's elite entrepreneurs with better access to investments and provide valuable knowledge and networks within larger established companies. Accelerace in its efforts to stay ahead of emerging technologies will now be able to launch new industry-specific accelerator programs.

Martin Vang Hansen, CEO of Færchfonden and new chairman of Accelerace, says: "For many years, Færchfonden has invested in the development of entrepreneurs, and has had a successful collaboration with Accelerace. The investment in Accelerace is, therefore, a natural step forward for us, especially as we have managed to get a strong partner like the Danish Growth Fund as the co-owner of the company. We expect Accelerace to play a key role for entrepreneurs and growth companies in Northwestern Jutland, and our goal is that investments in the long term will help create more jobs.'

Building a strong ecosystem for startups

As part of the National growth initiative, Scale-up Denmark, Accelerace trains approximately 80 carefully selected high-growth startups annually in the industries of technology, food technologies, cleantech and life science (biotech, medtech and healthcare).

Mikkel Hesselgren, Fund of Fund Director of The Danish Growth Fund, says: "Accelerace works very closely with individual entrepreneurs and management to address hands-on their business challenges. It takes place at an international level, with high personal commitment. In our experience, it is precisely these qualities that are highly sought after by the most ambitious entrepreneurs. We have to strengthen the bridge between startups and private capital markets and Accelerace provides an important contribution by equipping companies with the skills to present their ideas as attractive investment cases."

Jørgen Bardenfleth, Chairman of Symbion, who has been Chairman of Accelerace since inception, continues as board member, says: "Accelerace has been working tirelessly since 2008 to build a strong ecosystem for startups and entrepreneurs, providing advice from industry experts, and access to a network of relevant experts, possible corporate partners and investors. The new ownership structure with Færchfonden and the Danish Growth Fund as main shareholders, along with Symbion as co-owner will give the Accelerace startups the best opportunity to grow internationally and professionalize their companies with access to the best Danish and international investment funds. "

Machine learning and artificial intelligence can spot the winners

In October 2017, Accelerace was presented with the award for best Nordic accelerator program by the Nordic Startup Awards for the work to scale startups, build strategic partnerships with major companies such as Arla Foods, Foss, Elia, Enel and the Novo Nordisk Foundation, as well as having the ambition to build a pan-Nordic startup ecosystem.

As a new initiative, Accelerace has developed a digital method that is expected to be used as a tool to predict which startups have the greatest chances of success and which can raise funding quickly and efficiently. The system is based on artificial intelligence and machine learning from data collected by Accelerace since 2008.

Read more at www.faerchfonden.dk, www.vf.dk, www.symbion.dk and www.accelerace.io

About Accelerace
Accelerace is one of the world’s top 10 seed-accelerators. Since 2008 Accelerace has spotted, trained and invested in more than 800 of the most promising Danish and international start-ups and growth companies. As part of the national Scale-up Denmark initiative, Accelerace is scaling up startups within tech; foodtech, cleantech and life science (biotech, medtech & health care) technologies through guidance and mentoring from skilled serial entrepreneurs, camps and its extensive network. Accelerace has invested in more than 80 promising startups, who have been through the Accelerace program and have started partnerships with The Novo Nordisk Foundation. Arla, Foss, NRGI, Business Lolland-Falster, Elia, Endesa & Enel. Accelerace is also responsible for the management of NOME (Nordic Mentor Network for Entrepreneurship), a mentor network for life science startups. Read more on www.accelerace.io and www.nome.nu

About Færchfonden
The Færchfonden Foundation was founded in 1984 by Kirsten and Jørgen Færch. The fund supports entrepreneurship, growth and local attractiveness in Northwest Jutland through the development of entrepreneurship, business, culture, education, etc. The Færchfonden has among other things invested in Nupark Innovation A / S in Holstebro, the establishment of the innovation environment Borean Innovation A / S and has recently invested in the Social Capital Fund Invest K / S. Read more at www.faerchfonden.dk

About the Danish Growth Fund
The Danish Growth Fund is a state investment fund that contributes to the creation of new companies by providing capital and expertise. Since 1992, The Danish Growth Fund has together with private investors co-financed growth in more than 6,600 Danish companies with a total commitment of more than DKK 20 billion. The Danish Growth Fund invests equity and provides loans and guarantees for small and medium-sized enterprises in collaboration with private partners and Danish financial institutions. Read more on www.vf.dk

About Symbion
Symbion is Denmark's largest startup community with more than 30 years of experience in creating the best framework for both smart startups and more established entrepreneurs and growth companies. Symbion accelerates growth through targeted knowledge, networking and learning. In addition, Symbion offers advice and access to a unique community, which, in addition to Symbion, counts Creators Floor, which is located at CBS and Univate, located at the University of Copenhagen. Read more at www.symbion.dk