Accelerace exports successful model for collaboration between universities and the venture eco-system to the Baltics.

One-third of the startups that VC-accelerator Accelerace has invested in across its two funds have been startups created by university students, and will now enter into a collaboration with the Latvian university incubator, UniLab, to expand business opportunities to more universities and students.

In 2023, Accelerace onboarded CPH Lighthouse, the innovation and entrepreneurship center for the University of Copenhagen, onto the online platform, Tools. Tools contain the online courses and instruments that can help early-stage startups get to product-market fit and raise funding. The knowledge and methods have been developed through the last 15 years of accelerator programs within Accelerace, and with it, students at the University of Copenhagen, and soon more, will have a better chance of succeeding with their startup. The partnership with Lighthouse was the beginning of an even stronger focus and support for university startups and entrepreneurship.

“The startup support for university students is fundamental for the bridge between our educational institutions and our business ecosystems. To connect students with the corporate world is essential to continued innovation and success” – David Today, Fund Manager at Accelerace.

And now, in 2024, Accelerace is entering into a collaboration with Latvian UniLab to increase entrepreneurial support for university students in Latvia. UniLab was born out of Riga Technical University and the University of Latvia and aims to assist student startups’ ability to raise external funding and to create a stronger foundation for scientific startups. Along with the rest of Latvia’s science universities, Accelerace will now become part of the UniLab support mechanism for university students and aid them in commercializing scientific innovation.

“We are really excited to see Accelerace becoming part of UniLab. Their expertise in accelerating and investing in early-stage startups is very well known across Europe, and their new platform encompasses all the knowledge they have accumulated over the years. It will be a huge gain for all the students, researchers and scientists interested in becoming entrepreneurs” – Andris Baumanis, Head of UniLab.

Accelerace will give UniLab, and thus the university students, access to the cornerstone, proprietary courses that have been created based on decades of knowledge, along with all the tools needed to reach product-market fit or the first round of funding.

“We have spent most of our professional life accelerating and investing in startups, learning something new every single time, and we want new entrepreneurs to use that knowledge to get a head start and not have to make the same mistakes as many others” – Peter Torstensen, CEO at Accelerace.

As part of the collaboration, Accelerace will, alongside UniLab, apply for Latvia state-owned development finance institution, Altum’s, open call for venture capital fund managers for a ten-year fund worth €20.67M. The strengthening of university startups and tech spin-offs will be a main source for deal-flow for the fund, should Accelerace become manager of it.