Corporate acceleration has emerged as a powerful tool for established organisations seeking to diversify their portfolios with increased speed and reduce risk - all while leveraging existing corporate assets.
Leading corporations across industries have successfully adopted this strategy to future-proof their businesses, find disruptive solutions to traditional challenges, and maintain a competitive edge. In essence, accelerators enable organisations to “accelerate” growth by tapping into the external startup ecosystem and forging strategic partnerships that enable them to:
- Test new business models
- Access and experiment with cutting-edge technologies
- Launch new products and services
- Generate new revenue streams
To give you a better idea of how they work in the real world, we’ve created a list of 10 inspiring corporate accelerator examples from around the world. Each example illustrates how this strategy can be tailored to fit different industries, including mobility, food & beverage, beauty, tech and banking (just to name a few). The goal? To provide you with valuable insights you can use to build your own acceleration strategy.
Let’s kick things off with a bit of context.
What is a corporate accelerator?
Simply put, corporate accelerators enable companies to tap into the external startup ecosystem to boost internal innovation through partnerships and collaborations. Unlike incubators, which turn ideas into businesses, accelerators are the next step in the process, helping young companies expedite their growth and scale their existing business models.
While acceleration programs vary from company to company, in most cases, they support startups by providing them with access to mentoring, expertise, networking opportunities, and funding - all crucial resources to help expedite the scaling process. In addition, accelerator programs tend to:
- Be fixed and highly structured
- Last for a period of Three to 10 months
- Arrange equity and establish strategic partnerships and collaborations
Now that you know a bit more about corporate accelerators, let’s look at some inspiring, real-world examples.
100+ Sustainability Accelerator by AB InBev
Founder and Managing Director: Maisie Devine Sherman
Headquarters: New York, USA
Industry: Food and beverage sustainability
Founded: 2018
Activities: Acceleration and investments
100+ Sustainability Accelerator provides startups with mentorship, resources, funding, and access to AB InBev’s global network of experts and partners. The goal? To accelerate the development of cutting-edge solutions and launch them to the market. The program is focused on solutions that address sustainability challenges such as water stewardship, agriculture, circular packaging, and climate action.
The name "100+" refers to AB InBev's goal of powering its breweries with 100% renewable energy and achieving a 25% reduction in its carbon footprint by 2025.
Toyota Startup Accelerator by Toyota Motor Europe (TME)
President and Chief Executive Officer at TME: Matt Harrison
Headquarters: Madrid, Spain
Industry: Mobility, sustainability
Founded: 2020
Activities: Acceleration and investments
Toyota Startup Accelerator is a 6-month acceleration program run in partnership with ISDI Accelerator. The program is designed to support and grow early-stage startups that are developing innovative solutions in four key areas:
- Mobility for all
- Carbon neutrality
- Circular economy of plastics
- Life cycle footprint ecosystem
Qualified startups get access to funding, mentorship, Toyota’s vast network, and other resources including:
Participating startups also have the opportunity to showcase their solutions at a demo day at the end of the program, and pitch their offerings in front of top investors, media outlets, Toyota and ISDI executives.
Visa Everywhere Initiative by Visa
Head of Innovation and Digital Partnerships at Visa: Vanessa Colella
Headquarters: California, USA
Industry: Fintech, digital banking
Founded: 2015
Activities: Acceleration and investments
The Visa Everywhere Initiative features various competitions and challenges designed to engage startups and encourage them to showcase their innovative solutions. In return, participants receive mentorship, funding, and other essential resources to aid in transforming their ideas into thriving offerings. This year’s edition will focus on:
- Founders from underrepresented communities
- Solutions that specifically serve underrepresented communities
There will also be three challenge categories, including African American, Women and LGBTQ+ focusing on solutions in areas like digital payments, small business, analytics, neo banks, Banking as a service and more.
Salesforce Accelerate by Salesforce
Director, ISV Events and Programs, Salesforce Accelerate Program: Emilie Jessula
Headquarters: California, USA
Industry: Cloud computing, SaaS
Founded: 2016
Activities: Acceleration and investments
Salesforce Accelerate is a three-month virtual program designed to propel startups forward by integrating them into Salesforce's thriving ecosystem. The program equips participants with valuable resources, expert guidance, and support, ensuring their alignment with Salesforce's corporate objectives while expediting their time-to-market on the AppExchange—the world's largest enterprise cloud marketplace.
The program is designed to provide startups with the support they need to develop key skills and strategies that are essential for success in today's competitive market, including product development, sales, marketing, and fundraising.
The Accelerator powered by Nestle R+D
Global Head of The Accelerator powered by Nestlé R&D: Tom Wagner
Headquarters: Lausanne, Switzerland
Industry: Food and beverage, health and wellness
Founded: 2019
Activities: Acceleration, Investments and Incubation
The Accelerator powered by Nestlé R+D aims to foster innovative solutions in segments like food, beverage, health, and nutrition (among others). It transforms cutting-edge concepts into market-ready products by connecting Nestlé's vast global R&D network with leading academic institutions, innovation partners, suppliers, and startups. It supports innovators by providing access to:
- Tailored mentorship opportunities
- Cutting-edge facilities, tools and technologies
- Financial support
- Networking and partnership opportunities
This unique ecosystem enables innovators to test, refine, and scale their ideas, helping them to overcome technical and commercial challenges that typically hinder the growth of startups.
Target accelerator program by Target
Director: Justine Savarin
Headquarters: Minnesota, USA
Industry: Retail, consumer goods
Founded: 2014
Activities: Acceleration, investments, incubation
The Target Accelerator Program is a retail think-tank aimed at supporting early-stage startups working on innovative retail and consumer solutions. It offers two different program categories:
- Target Forward Founders for early-stage CPG companies looking to enter retail
- Target Takeoff for mature CPG companies looking to scale
Participants benefit from mentorship, technical assistance, and business development opportunities, including introductions to potential customers and partners. Here’s how it works:
Aside from the benefits mentioned above, chosen startups also benefit from access to Target's resources and expertise, as well as opportunities to pilot and scale solutions within Target stores and digital platforms.
STANLEY+Techstars Accelerator by Stanley Black & Decker
Managing Director: Laila Partridge
Headquarters: Maryland, USA
Industry: Tech, electrification
Founded: 2018
Activities: Acceleration, investments
As the name suggests, the STANLEY+Techstars Accelerator is a collaborative initiative between Stanley Black & Decker and Techstars. The program is devoted to championing early-stage startups, pushing the boundaries in areas like advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence (AI), automation, the Internet of Things (IoT), and electrification.
The program lasts a total of 13 weeks, during which participants are immersed in a world of mentorship, workshops, funding, and a plethora of resources, all designed to catapult their startups to new heights. The accelerator boasts over 20 graduates that have reached unicorn status, an impressive roster of over 5,500 active accelerator mentors, and a staggering cumulative market cap exceeding $96 B.
Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs Accelerator
Head of LIFT Labs and Startup Engagement: Laura Plunkett
Headquarters: Pennsylvania, USA
Industry: Media, entertainment, connectivity
Founded: 2018
Activities: Acceleration, Investments, Incubation
The Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs Accelerator is a six-week program for startups looking to forge partnerships with industry giants like Comcast NBCUniversal. Unlike traditional startup accelerators, this program does not involve the issuance of equity to Comcast in exchange for participation.
Catering to startups ranging from pre-seed to enterprise-ready – the LIFT Labs Accelerator focuses on helping them strengthen their relationships with Comcast NBCUniversal's business divisions. Chosen startups are granted open access to an extensive network of mentors, businesses, and corporate partners, empowering them to cultivate potential commercial deals and flourish within their respective sectors.
Microsoft for Startups GrowthX Accelerator by Microsoft
Managing Director at Microsoft for Startups: Lauren Perkins
Headquarters: Abu Dhabi, UAE
Industry: B2B tech
Founded: 2019
Activities: Acceleration
The Microsoft GrowthX Accelerator is a 10-week virtual program designed to support the growth of B2B tech startups in the Middle East, Turkey, and Pakistan. The accelerator is part of Microsoft for Startups Middle East and has been launched in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) to boost the growth of B2B tech startups in these regions. Participants gain access to Microsoft's ecosystem of customers and partners, with support across four pillars:
The program targets growth-stage startups, ranging from Seed to Series A stages, with a focus on enterprise sales readiness and technical readiness for scale.
Sephora Accelerate by Sephora
Headquarters: California, USA
Industry: Beauty
Founded: 2016
Activities: Acceleration, incubation
Originally launched to support founders in the beauty industry, Sephora Accelerate was relaunched in early 2021 with a renewed focus on supporting brand founders of colour. The change was part of Sephora's broader commitment to promoting equity and diversity - making the beauty industry “representative of the colours, races, and ethnicities that make up the Americas.”
The six-month program offers a comprehensive curriculum, mentorship, merchandising support, potential funding, and connections to investors for all participants. After completing the program, participants have the opportunity to launch their brands at Sephora.
Final thoughts
These 10 corporate accelerator examples represent some of the most successful and innovative companies in the world - barring Sephora, they’re all part of the Forbes 2000 list. While the main principle is basically the same, each of these companies has adapted the acceleration strategy to their unique assets, industry, growth goals and resources with stellar results.
We hope these examples help to illustrate all the different ways you can leverage the acceleration strategy to fuel innovation and entrepreneurship in your own business. For more inspiring examples, be sure to check out our new report: 50 corporate accelerator examples. It’s packed with valuable insights that explain how some of today’s leading corporations are using acceleration to boost growth and dominate their industries.
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