Top 10 Best Sustainability Accelerators You Should Know About

If you’re looking to get your business off the ground, or just making it that much easier to run a profitable operation, one of the best places to start would be by looking into business accelerators. We explain the benefits of joining a top startup accelerator in this article but in this article, the focus is on sustainability and greentech accelerators.

Sustainability accelerators are a niche subset of business accelerators that focus on helping companies integrate sustainability into their operations and grow more sustainable from within.

In addition, if you have a startup with a sustainable mission, sustainability accelerators could be very helpful to integrate growth and sustainability. These programs help startups accelerate their growth and make sure they’re equipped with all the resources they need in order to grow successfully.

This article is going to take you through everything you need to know about the top 10 best sustainability accelerators you should know about.

1. Techstars Sustainability Accelerator (US)

This program is the largest and most well-known sustainability accelerator in the world, with a total of 15 programs in over 10 countries. The program is focused on helping early-stage companies accelerate their growth by providing them with access to a network of over 700 mentors, investors, specialists, and specialists from the ecosystem.

The Accelerator seeks to grow start-ups with innovative, marketable technology that can address the world’s problems with food, water, and climate change.

This is how it goes. Ten entrepreneurs with the best sustainability technology ideas received seed money from an equity fund that investors established for the program. The business owners are currently taking part in a demanding three-month program aimed to help them expand their enterprises.

They will take part in a “demo day” after the program’s conclusion to present their technologies to potential investors for further fundraising rounds.

2. Plug and Play APAC (US)

Plug and Play is a global network of technologists, entrepreneurs, and investors that helps entrepreneurs connect and collaborate with experts in the tech community.

The program focuses on helping startups accelerate their growth by providing them with access to a network of over 4,300 specialists.

The APAC program is divided up into five locations, with their largest program being in Singapore where they launch in 2010 to invest in high-tech sustainable startups.

Each location hosts one or two programs, with their core focus being Asian growth. Some of the core themes of their sustainability accelerators include consumer technologies, enterprise technologies, and blockchain-based technologies, while they also host an accelerator focused on clean tech startups and one focused on health care technologies.

3. EIT InnoEnergy (EU)

EIT InnoEnergy, as one of the leading sustainability accelerators in Europe, is the ideal option for people who wish to make a contribution to the renewable energy industry.

The acronym EIT stands for the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, a body responsible for the EU’s innovation development. One of the Institute’s eight Innovation Communities, InnoEnergy is situated in Eindhoven and is dedicated to advancing sustainable energy solutions.

Within the first twelve years of its existence, EIT InnoEnergy has already invested in more than 500 sustainable energy solutions and offers long-term support to inventors, startups, and scale-ups.

InnoEnergy’s various programs include sustainable buildings and cities, energy storage, renewable energies, energies efficiencies and many more.

4. HighTechXL (Netherlands & China)

HighTechXL is one of the only sustainability accelerators in the Netherlands, focused on helping early-stage companies accelerate their growth by providing them with access to a network of over 1,000 specialists.

HighTechXL sees itself as a worldwide platform. It has been a deep-tech venture fund since 2018 and a high-tech startup accelerator since 2015. Although HighTechXL has offices in Eindhoven and Shangai, it is just as productive to work remotely.

It plans to launch 15 deep-tech ventures entirely online by the year 2020. The European Space Agency, CERN, Phillips, the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, and TNO are other partners with this high-tech startup hub.

A nine-month acceleration program run by HightTechXL includes weekly workshops, coaching, one-on-one sessions, help for business development, funding, and more.

5. The Do School (Germany)

The Do School is one of the leading social impact accelerators in the world, focusing on helping early-stage companies accelerate their growth by providing them with access to a network of over 1,500 specialists and investors.

The DO School mixes a novel learning-by-Doing, challenge-oriented methodology with the conventional accelerator technique.

Twenty fellows are chosen for each program and spend 10 weeks working together to create their own businesses while learning by tackling a sustainability challenge provided by a top company (such H&M, Covestro, or the City of New York) that is crucial to the company’s strategic objectives.

The fellows work together with the challenge organization team members and outside practitioners who are brought in to offer advice on certain problems or subjects during this time.

The fellows return home to start their own businesses after presenting the sponsor organization with the social ideas they developed during the 10-week challenge.

6. GoodCompany Ventures (US)

GoodCompany Ventures is one of the few venture capital firms focused on sustainable ventures, focused on investing in early-stage companies that focus on growth and sustainability.

The founders started the initiative because they believe that business has the ability to overcome the constraints of the public sector, provide innovation sustainably, and unleash enormous value by resolving the biggest problems in the world.

Early-stage entrepreneurs are chosen by GoodCompany Ventures to take part in a rigorous 12-week program. During this time, they are guided through a series of investor and expert panels, tactical workshops, peer-to-peer critiques, and one-on-one coaching sessions, which culminate in an investor pitch event.

So far, 75 startups have graduated from their program and more than $60 million has been invested in such sustainable ventures.

7. TechX Clean Energy Accelerator (UK)

TechX is one of the leading sustainability accelerators in the UK focused on helping startup companies accelerate their energy transition.

The TechX Clean Energy Accelerator is a rigorous 15-week program for 12 cutting-edge clean energy start-ups with the unmistakable potential to greatly hasten the transition to a marketable net zero energy sector.

The entry requirements:

• To be eligible for the Accelerator, start-ups’ technological solutions must be at a technology readiness level (TRL) of 2 to 6 inclusive.
• Due to the virtual delivery of the program, startups can be located anywhere.
• To participate in the program, a minimum of one founder must be available full-time for the whole 15-week period.
• During the TechX Clean Energy Accelerator program, startups are not permitted to participate in other accelerators.
• Only startups that are creating clean energy technologies that fall under one or more of our technical emphasis areas will be taken into consideration.

8. FrenchTech Green20 (France)

FrenchTech Green20 is one of the leading sustainability accelerators focused on sustainable ventures, focused on investing in early-stage companies in France.

Some greentech businesses in France have the potential to dominate the global market. FrenchTech goal is to stand by their side as they develop more quickly in France and elsewhere.

As part of French Tech for the Planet, they annually support 20 French startups that have been chosen by an expert panel after an application call. The French Tech Mission, numerous French Tech Correspondents (who already assist the French Tech Next40/120 program), and teams from the Ministry of Ecological Transition work closely together to lead the initiative.

Twenty promising French companies engaged in industries or pursuits that support the ecological transformation are what they are searching for. Their yearly growth must have shown that they had already attained a certain level of maturity.

9. Fashion For Good (Netherlands)

A platform for sustainable fashion innovation, Fashion For Good seeks to advance the global garment market. The Laudes Foundation, co-founder William McDonough, and business partners including Adidas, CHANEL, Levi Strauss & Co., ZALANDO, etc. all support the platform.

One of the main elements of the platform is an innovation program, which aims to enable its participants to develop innovative solutions for the textile sector.

It brings together entrepreneurs and retailers, brands, producers, and financiers. They provide a nine-month intensive Innovation program that is fee- and equity-free.

A start-up needs a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), a legal entity, and to be operating inside the fashion value chain in order to receive support from the platform and access to the global network.

10. Echoing Green (US)

Echoing Green is one of the oldest business accelerators and arguable the oldest sustainability accelerator in the US and has helped thousands of companies bring their visions to life through their B2B program.

Three fellowships are available through Echoing Green: the Global Fellowship for innovators advancing communities globally; the Climate Fellowship for social entrepreneurs redefining climate change adaptation and mitigation; and the Black Male Achievement Fellowship for trailblazing thinkers breaking down barriers affecting black men and boys in the United States. Annually, fellowships are given out.

Fellows are accepted into programs that provide social entrepreneurs operating in more than 70 countries with seed-stage investment, continuous technical support, strategic advice from industry experts, and leadership training programs.

Bottom line: Are sustainability accelerators for you?

There are plenty of great business accelerators out there that can help take your company to the next level, but only a few truly stand out. While it’s important to look at all aspects of your operation in order to grow, it’s also important to remember that the best way to get more clients, especially in the short-term, is to solve a real-world problem.

Top sustainability accelerators that are introduced in this blog post can substantially help you to both solve a real-world problem and create a scalable business model. If you are serious about the sustainable aspect of your startup, we encourage you to consider these accelerators and their websites.