Every accelerator worth applying to — and the tool to get you accepted

$220K ($20K for 5% + $200K uncapped MFN SAFE) · 3 months

The 'worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed' — mentorship-driven 3-month programs in 15+ cities, each with its own sector flavor and local investor bench.

Terms & how to apply

Deal varies · ~8–10 weeks residency, then investment decision

The 'day zero' investor — join a residency before you have a team or even an idea, find a co-founder inside the cohort, and pitch Antler's investment committee for first capital.

Terms & how to apply

Up to $250K ($125K SAFE for 8% + $125K uncapped MFN SAFE) · 24 weeks (12-week FORM + 12-week LAUNCH in San Francisco)

The talent-first investor — apply before you have a company, get matched with a technical or commercial co-founder in FORM, then build toward funding and a San Francisco LAUNCH phase.

Terms & how to apply

Deal varies · 3 months

The corporate-innovation matchmaker — equity-free vertical programs whose real product is warm introductions to the Fortune 500 partners funding each batch.

Terms & how to apply

Deal varies · ~3–4 months (varies by program)

The peer-selected accelerator — thematic, equity-free programs for impact-driven startups where the cohort itself votes on who receives the grant capital.

Terms & how to apply

Deal varies · 10 weeks

Google's equity-free 10-week program — deep technical mentorship from Google engineers, AI/ML support and cloud credits for seed-to-Series-A startups, at zero dilution.

Terms & how to apply

Deal varies · Ongoing membership (no cohorts)

Not a cohort — a free membership for AI startups: GPU credits and preferred hardware pricing, NVIDIA engineering resources, and exposure to its VC alliance, with zero equity and no deadline.

Terms & how to apply

Deal varies · Ongoing membership (no cohorts)

Microsoft's equity-free credits engine — restructured in 2025 into a self-service track for early founders and an Investor Network track that starts backed startups at $100K+ in Azure and AI credits.

Terms & how to apply

$500K ($125K for 7% + $375K uncapped MFN SAFE) · 3 months

The accelerator every other accelerator is measured against — $500K on founder-friendly terms, four batches a year in San Francisco, and the strongest alumni network in tech.

Terms & how to apply

$150K for 6% (less a $37.5K program fee) · 4 months

The most globally minded of the Valley accelerators — a 4-month Silicon Valley flagship batch drawing heavily on international founders, backed by a portfolio spanning 80+ countries.

Terms & how to apply

$750K uncapped SAFE + $450K+ in compute credits · 3 months

Ali Partovi's low-dilution counterweight to YC — a $750K uncapped SAFE (no fixed equity), tiny hand-picked cohorts, and a talent network that skews heavily technical.

Terms & how to apply

Up to $1M uncapped SAFE for 5% · 12 weeks

The monastery model — a 12-week live-in residency in a San Francisco mansion for repeat founders, trading distraction-free intensity and up to $1M for 5%.

Terms & how to apply

~$25K–30K for typically ~5% (flexible by company) · 6 months

The enterprise specialist — a 6-month program built exclusively for startups that sell to businesses, where the curriculum is pipeline, procurement and enterprise sales motion.

Terms & how to apply

$200K from the SkyDeck Fund (SAFE, widely reported ~7.5%) · 6 months

UC Berkeley's university accelerator with a real fund — $200K checks, 6-month cohorts, and privileged access to Berkeley's research, advisors and 500,000-strong alumni network.

Terms & how to apply

Deal varies · 12 weeks

Stanford's nonprofit founder community — zero equity, zero fees, lifetime membership, and one hard gate: at least one founder must be Stanford-affiliated.

Terms & how to apply

Deal varies · 4 months (US Early Stage)

The zero-equity competition-accelerator — large cohorts, mentor marathons, and cash prizes instead of investment, across Boston, Texas, Israel, Switzerland and Mexico.

Terms & how to apply

Up to $1M ($500K SAFE for 10% + $500K in your next round) · 12 weeks

Andreessen Horowitz's own accelerator — up to $1M for games, AI and consumer-tech startups, 12 weeks in San Francisco, and a sub-0.4% acceptance rate.

Terms & how to apply

Up to $550K initial pre-seed from SOSV · 6 months (residency)

The hard-tech factory — SOSV's hardware accelerator puts up to $550K and an in-house engineering team behind climate, industrial and robotics startups at pre-seed.

Terms & how to apply

Deal varies · ~4 months

The biotech accelerator that turned scientists into founders — SOSV's SF and NY labs fund pre-seed deep biology, food tech and bio-industrial startups with lab space included.

Terms & how to apply

Deal varies · ~9 months (Oct–Jun, objectives every 8 weeks)

The objectives machine — a zero-cost, zero-equity 9-month program where scientist-founders set measurable objectives every 8 weeks in front of mentors who cut companies that miss.

Terms & how to apply

Deal varies · 3–18 months (intensive first phase)

Residency at the world's biggest startup campus — the Founders Program puts early teams inside Station F's 1,000-startup Paris ecosystem for a desk fee rather than equity or a check.

Terms & how to apply

Up to €100K (equity/convertible/SAFE); €35K fee after investment · 14 weeks

The most prolific accelerator investor in Europe's emerging ecosystems — B2B-heavy vertical cohorts from the Baltics to Africa, investing up to €100K per startup.

Terms & how to apply

Deal varies · Varies by program

The purpose-driven Dutch pioneer — domain funds and accelerator programs in energy, agrifood and emerging tech, investing from dedicated funds with follow-on capacity to Series B.

Terms & how to apply

Deal varies · 3 months

The vertical-program veteran — corporate-partnered 3-month accelerators across 20+ countries in energy, health, food and fintech, whose alumni include the €250M Munich Re acquisition Relayr.

Terms & how to apply

£60K for 7% · 12 weeks (6-week intensive + 6 weeks coaching)

Europe's tech-for-good standard-bearer — £60K for 7% into very early UK startups tackling social and environmental problems, with follow-on up to £1M.

Terms & how to apply

Deal varies · ~4 months (varies by program)

MENA's seed-stage institution — country-specific seed programs from Cairo to Riyadh to Tunis, and the region's most prolific early-stage investor by deal count.

Terms & how to apply

AED 250K cash (SAFE) + AED 250K in-kind (up to AED 750K with top-up) · 12 months

Abu Dhabi's sovereign-backed launchpad — a 12-month Access program packaging AED 250K cash and AED 250K of incentives to anchor global startups in the UAE capital.

Terms & how to apply

$100K+ investment ($35K Phase 1 program fee) · 12 weeks

500 Global's Riyadh batch, backed by PIF's Sanabil — the Valley accelerator playbook run twice a year for MENA founders, with $100K+ checks and Saudi market access.

Terms & how to apply

$40K non-dilutive (+$100K follow-on for top 10) · 6 months (after ~1-month bootcamp)

KAUST and SAB's equity-free engine — $40K non-dilutive grants (plus $100K follow-ons for the top ten) through a 6-month hybrid program anchored at Saudi Arabia's research university.

Terms & how to apply

Deal varies · 10 weeks (+optional 2-week Grow phase)

The Misk Foundation's zero-cost on-ramp — a 10-week, mostly virtual program taking idea-stage founders to launch readiness, equity-free, with an optional Riyadh activation week.

Terms & how to apply

Deal varies · 4 months

Egypt's university accelerator that produced a Nasdaq listing — AUC's zero-equity, 4-month program that put Swvl on its path, running two cycles a year from New Cairo.

Terms & how to apply

$30K–50K initial seed, up to ~$100K with follow-on · 6 months

The Levant's pioneer seed investor — Amman-based acceleration and $30K–50K first checks that seeded Jordan's best-known startups, from Tamatem to ArabiaWeather.

Terms & how to apply

Fully sponsored training; top ventures receive up to $100K pre-seed · 12 months (7-month training + 4-month incubation)

Africa's founder school — a fully sponsored year in Accra (flights, housing, training included) that turns high-potential builders into funded founders, now AI-focused.

Terms & how to apply

$100K equity-free per startup · 12 months (+12 months post-program advisory)

Nigeria's original innovation hub — CcHub's flagship Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship puts $100K equity-free behind a dozen African edtech startups a year.

Terms & how to apply

Deal varies · 6–9 months

South Africa's scale-up gym — a sponsor-financed, no-upfront-equity program run with Knife Capital that drills post-revenue startups toward investability over 6–9 months.

Terms & how to apply

$100K for 12.5% · 2-week intensive + 3 months hands-on support

Africa's clearest deal — $100K for 12.5%, wired upfront in one lump sum, no fees and no board seat, for very early founders anywhere on the continent.

Terms & how to apply

$150K–500K for ~10–15% · 3 months

Southeast Asia's YC analog — founded by YC alumni, running twice-yearly remote-first batches with $150K–500K checks for founders from Jakarta to Manila to Ho Chi Minh City.

Terms & how to apply

$500K–5M seed capital · ~4 months (multi-module)

Peak XV's seed platform for India and SEA — real seed rounds of $500K–5M plus a multi-module founder program, from the firm formerly known as Sequoia India.

Terms & how to apply

Deal varies · 6 months

Greater Southeast Asia's zero-cost heavyweight — Taiwan's AppWorks runs 6-month batches for AI, web3 and deep-tech founders with no equity, no tokens and no fees, backed by its own VC fund.

Terms & how to apply

Equity-free: travel support, demo-day prizes to ₩100M, grants to ₩50M · ~10 months (3 phases)

Korea's state-run gateway for foreign startups — an equity-free, roughly 10-month challenge with staged prizes, grants and visa support for teams entering the Korean market.

Terms & how to apply

Equity-free co-funding: Build ~CLP 15M, Ignite ~CLP 30M, Growth ~CLP 75M · 4 months (Build/Ignite); 8 months (Growth)

The original government accelerator — equity-free grants from Chile's CORFO across three tracks (Build, Ignite, Growth), open to founders worldwide willing to build from Santiago.

Terms & how to apply

$200K for 7% · 3 months

LatAm's founder-run YC — a $200K-for-7% batch built by Chilean founders for Latin American startups, with alumni like Toku and Fintoc validating the model.

Terms & how to apply