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Table of contents
2023
Quantifying the Success of YC and the Largest Accelerators: Takeaways for VCs, LPs, and Startups
June 9, 2023
The accelerator most likely to propel a startup to unicorn status
Y Combinator—the Bay Area accelerator behind Airbnb, Stripe, and DoorDash—has yielded more unicorns than Techstars, SOSV, MassChallenge, Plug and Play Tech Center, or 500 Global, with an estimated unicorn creation rate of 4.5% since 2010.
That’s just one of many exclusive findings from our latest PitchBook analysis, which offers a comprehensive look inside the industry’s preeminent accelerator programs. See how the top names stack up and hear from founders surveyed by PitchBook who went through each program on whether the experience was worthwhile.
Table of contents
| Summary | 2 |
| Overview of US accelerators | 3 |
| Key takeaways | 4 |
| Quantitative overview | |
| Geography | 6 |
| Cumulative exit value | 7 |
| Cumulative number of companies that have exited | 8 |
| Cumulative capital raised | 9 |
| Cumulative percentage of companies that raise a round | 10 |
| Analyzing follow-on investments made by VCs and accelerators | 11 |
| Cumulative valuation | 12 |
| Cumulative valuation over cumulative capital raised | 13 |
| Number of startups valued at $1B+, $500M+, and $100M+ | 14 |
| How much value do unicorns create in a given cohort? | 17 |
| Founder survey | |
| Survey overview | 20 |
| Net promoter score | 21 |
| Most valuable experience from the program | 22 |
| What founders wish the program offered | 24 |
| Exit probability | 26 |
| Seed-round pain points | 28 |