Top 9 US-based B2B SaaS Growth-Stage Startup Accelerators 2023

The number of B2B SaaS startups has grown exponentially over the past few years. There are hundreds of accelerators worldwide that contribute in helping launch important companies. In the United States, there are over 200 startup accelerator programs and they vary in approach, focus, price and effectiveness.

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What is a B2B SaaS Startup Accelerator?

A startup accelerator is a mentor-based program that provides intensive counseling, support, and limited funding for a set period of time in exchange for equity. The purpose of an accelerator is to stimulate your startup’s growth. The program duration is typically three months.

You get to know a wide range of advisors and experienced entrepreneurs who assist you in developing your product, working on your business model, and in due course connect with investors. Accelerators also have subject matter experts to help you accomplish product/market fit or even develop a go-to-market plan. They also often provide funding and the money to cover early-stage business expenses, as well as relocation and living expenses for the residency if it’s an in-person startup accelerator program.

Startup accelerators do provide free office space, hosting credits, funds, guidance and other resources that can help you extend your runway. However, it all comes at a price — signing an accelerator contract usually means giving away a part of your company. Startup accelerators generally take between 5% and 10% of your equity in exchange for counseling, training and funding.

For most startups and first-time founders, it is worth it. They need a lot of support, and an accelerator can help provide assistance and experience from past startups, explaining the best ways to present the product, making connections to investors, and showing what a fundraising cycle looks like.

To help founders with their search, we have created a list of successful B2B SaaS accelerators with unique features. You can choose an accelerator that is most suitable for your startup.

1. Y Combinator

Y Combinator is one of the best-known accelerators and the largest accelerator for startups in the US. Y Combinator is located in Silicon Valley, and thus, has significant experience with groundbreaking software companies. These past few years, Y Combinator has been creating additional programs to fund more AI, hardware, biotech, and education startups.

Many people consider Y Combinator to be the pioneer of startup accelerators. Founded in 2005, nowadays Y Combinator funds a new cohort of startups twice a year, investing $500k in each startup in exchange for 7% equity. They put all efforts into the startups for 3 months to get them into the best possible shape and refine the presentation to investors. Each three-month program culminates in Demo Day, when the startups pitch their companies to a carefully selected, invite-only audience of hand-picked investors. Some of Y Combinator’s most successful alumni include Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, Reddit, Twitch, Coinbase, and Weebly. To date, the companies it worked with have a combined valuation of over $100 billion.

• Unique Feature: The largest and the best-known accelerator
• Location: Mountain View
• Founded in: 2005
• Accelerator Duration: 12 weeks
• Equity Taken: 7%
• Apply here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/

2. Angelpad

Angelpad was ranked Top U.S Accelerator by MIT’s Seed Accelerator Benchmark 4 years in a row. AngelPad helps startups identify the product market fit, design feature-equipped products, and establish a target market for a company’s initial validation. Based in San Francisco and New York, the accelerator program has worked with more than 160 companies with an average funding of $11 million for each.

It is quite a challenge to get in — every 6 months they select 15 teams for their intensive 3-month program. If your application is approved, you get funding, mentorship, and knowledge in a broad spectrum of subjects centered on product market fit, getting validation, fundraising arrangement and so on. Most importantly, you have the opportunity to become a part of their community of founders and connect with investors.

Some of the B2B startups that grew through the Angelpad program are Pipedrive, DroneDeploy, Buffer, and Periscope Data. One of their outstanding alumni is Postmates, which raised $578 million, was acquired by Uber for $2.65 billion.

• Unique Feature: Tops the list of U.S Accelerators for 4 years
• Location: San Francisco
• Founded in: 2010
• Accelerator Duration: 12 weeks
• Equity Taken: 7%
• Apply here: https://angelpad.com/#apply

3. Forum Ventures (Acceleprise)

Earlier known as Acceleprise, Forum Ventures is one of the leading B2B SaaS platforms. This accelerator explicitly focuses on growth-stage B2B SaaS-companies offering support, fund, and community. One of the advantages of Forum Ventures is that the people behind the program were founders of some of the world’s largest SaaS-companies. They know SaaS business like the back of their hand, and they provide their experience to help your SaaS-company thrive. Forum Ventures have one of the most complete accelerator programs out there, and a great network of mentors.

Forum Ventures invests in more than 50 SaaS-companies each year, and at present its portfolio has over 150 SaaS-companies. Targeting growth-stage SaaS founders, Forum Ventures offers a personalized 4-month program focused on funding, hands-on support across go-to-market and fundraising, tactical workshops from SaaS leaders and introductions to potential customers via the vast network of enterprises. The program is limited to 10 companies per cohort, so you get their full attention. Forum Ventures accelerator offers personalized mentorship and focused programming and resources, and provides you with valuable introductions to advisors, customers and investors.

Forum Ventures runs their program twice a year in San Francisco, New York City and Toronto. This accelerator helped many SaaS startups, such as RouteFusion, People Data Labs and Indio.

• Unique Feature: Their experts are founders of large SaaS companies
• Location: New York
• Founded in: 2012
• Accelerator Duration: 15 weeks
• Equity Taken: N/A
• Apply here: https://lp.forumvc.com/pitch-us-form

4. Techstars

Techstars is another notable company in the world of B2B SaaS startup accelerators. The Techstars Worldwide Entrepreneur Network provides growth for the founders and their businesses by connecting them with a large network of peers, experts, mentors, investors, and corporate partners.

The Techstars portfolio includes more than 1,000 companies and they currently run 47 mentorship-driven accelerators in over 15 countries. These programs can take place all around the world, each focusing on a specific industry. For example, the Dutch Amsterdam ABN Amro & Techstars Future of Finance Accelerator is interesting for finance-solution SaaS companies, while the Canadian Colliers Proptech Accelerator in Toronto is only attractive to you if your SaaS-product is about the property and commercial real estate industry.

Techstars offers startup programs, mentorship-driven accelerator programs, corporate innovation partnerships, and Venture Capital Fund which invests in the most innovative companies. When you join their B2B SaaS mentor-based program you get 90-day personal mentorship and office space, access to over $120k of cash equivalent hosting, accounting and legal support, Demo Day exposure and exceptional investor connections. You also have lifetime access to the Techstars resources worldwide network. Techstars gave us SaaS unicorns, such as sales-SaaS Outreach, and cloud-based customer communication platform Sendgrid. Some of its most outstanding portfolio startups include ClassPass, Digital Ocean and Contently.

Techstars has already channeled $21.3 billion of funding towards 2,958 companies. Of all companies it has funded, 85,8% are still active or have been acquired. These companies’ market capitalization stands at $71 billion.

• Unique Feature: 47 mentorship-driven accelerators in over 15 countries
• Location: Boulder
• Founded in: 2006
• Accelerator Duration:12–14 weeks
• Equity Taken: 6%
• Apply here: https://www.techstars.com/accelerators

5. AlphaLab

Based in Pittsburgh, PA, AlphaLab is a software accelerator that assists technology entrepreneurs of growth-stage startups. Through their intensive 4-month program AlphaLab helps companies determine and establish the best strategy, evolve and expand their businesses. In addition to funding, the program provides an extensive mentorship network and educational sessions. The accelerator assists SaaS companies, giving access to helpful business resources. With AlphaLab, startups are provided with industry insights into fundraising, and are connected to a network of leaders.

What makes AlphaLab stand out from other accelerators is concentration on six to eight startups for each program, which gives you personalized approach and customized assistance for your startup’s needs.

AlphaLab is a member of the Global Accelerator Network and one of the first ten accelerator programs worldwide. Over 70% of AlphaLab companies have raised follow-on funding reaching a total of $150 million. Some of their most successful startups include NoWait (acquired by Yelp), Shoefitr (acquired by Amazon) and Powered Analytics (acquired by Target).

• Unique Feature: Only focuses on six to eight startups
• Location: Pittsburgh
• Founded in: 2008
• Accelerator Duration: 12–24 weeks
• Equity Taken: N/A
• Apply here: https://alphalab.org/apply/

6. Heavybit

Heavybit is the leading investor in developer-first companies, helping SaaS founders achieve outstanding success. Developers start to build new companies, but while they may know how to build products, they don’t always know how to build businesses. That’s when Heavybit Industries comes in — it’s a training ground for developers turned entrepreneurs.

Heavybit team assists startups in creating hi-tech platforms by mentoring them at every point. From DevSecOps to JAMstack, they help growing startups utilize advanced technology. They offer a team-based structured approach to turn visions into movements, products into platforms, and contributors into communities. Heavybit works directly with teams to redefine how teams build, deploy, secure, and scale mission-critical software. The community of technical founders and more than 600 domain experts have unmatched credentials of supporting developer-first companies to achieve breakout success. Heavybit team offers support, guidance and a platform tailored to your particular needs.

Heavybit invests in traditional developer tools, cloud native infrastructure, open source, DevOps, DevSecOps, etc. The accelerator worked with founders in 15 countries and 35 cities. Their unicorn alumni are PagerDuty, Snyk, Mux, Pantheon, Blockdaemon, Netlify, Squarespace, LaunchDarkly, CircleCI, Stripe, Contentful.

• Unique Feature: Leading investor in developer-first companies creating hi-tech platforms
• Location: San Francisco
• Founded in: 2013
• Accelerator Duration: 36 weeks
• Equity Taken: N/A
• Apply here: https://heavybit.typeform.com/to/tP7Lh7

7. Muckerlab

Established in 2011, MuckerLab is Mucker Capital’s operational and accelerating platform. MuckerLab focuses on investing in startups in internet software, services, media ventures, in addition to enterprise, fintech, B2B and consumer products.

Instead of the usual accelerator process of three months mentoring that culminates in a Demo Day, MuckerLab team works with 20–25 companies per year, doing ‘heads down company-building for one year — or however long it takes’ to ensure that every single company achieves the operational milestones essential for the next round of funding. Their practical approach ensures the achievement of extraordinary success rates and founder satisfaction scores. The personalized mentoring model allows MuckerLab to be deeply involved as operating executives in companies at their earliest stages.

MuckerLab helps B2B SaaS businesses boost their ROI by improving their growth strategies. Their team is not afraid of digging in on the tactics of building their companies — from drawing wireframes and drafting marketing materials, to managing AdWords campaigns — doing whatever is necessary to help their portfolio companies win in the marketplace.

MuckerLab alumni companies include Honey (acquired by PayPal for $4 billion), ServiceTitan (raised a total $1.1 billion) and Emailage (acquired by LexisNexis for $500 million).

• Unique Feature: Company-building period of a year or as long as it takes
• Location: Santa Monica
• Founded in: 2011
• Accelerator Duration: 52 weeks
• Equity Taken: 7%
• Apply here: https://airtable.com/shrmweCQ0D2cgeSDS

8. Plug and Play

Plug and Play Tech Center is an innovation platform that connects large enterprises and B2B SaaS startups. It brings together startups and entrepreneurs with reputed global investors, so together they can design a unique tech ecosystem to meet future needs. Getting into Plug and Play accelerator program is a great opportunity to meet investors and a community suitable for you, thus boosting the growth of your venture.

With a network of more than 50,000 startups and more than 500 companies, Plug and Play focuses on connecting groundbreaking startups and leading enterprises. This collaboration can support startup growth and drive innovation in larger businesses, and venture capital companies are welcome to join to help support that connection. Plug and Play offers accelerators focused on different sectors, such as insurtech, enterprise tech, cybersecurity, real estate and construction, and even fashion.

Plug and Play has a high-grade group of alumni, including fintech leaders like Paypal and LendingClub. Plug and Play’s portfolio companies up to date have raised more than $9 billion. Investments vary from around $25k to $500k.

What sets Plug and Play apart from many others is that it doesn’t take equity and doesn’t ask participating startups to give up any ownership because they “would much rather invest in your next round of funding fairly.” This can be especially tempting for startups hoping to realize their idea or project before pledging a share percentage.

• Unique Feature: Doesn’t take equity
• Location: Sunnyvale
• Founded in: 2006
• Accelerator Duration: 12 weeks
• Equity Taken: None
• Apply here: https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/join/

9. Tinyseed

TinySeed is the first accelerator program created for ambitious SaaS bootstrappers. TinySeed provides a remote, year-long mentorship to growth-stage B2B SaaS startups.

TinySeed team guarantees the implementation of best practices, starting with scaling sales, support, hiring, and onboarding, to the lead generation process and funding. The first three months of the program are dedicated to The TinySeed Playbook — presentations, best practices, and one-on-one help provided by the TinySeed team, covering important SaaS topics such as: pricing, hiring, funnels, and lead generation. They offer guidance, advice, and mentorship from founders who have been in your shoes, all without the headache of traditional fundraising, loss of control, or the pressure to build a unicorn. TinySeed considers a great business $10 million in annual revenue, while for most venture capitalists it’s a failure.

Since 2018 TinySeed has backed more than 80 fast-growing B2B SaaS companies across four continents. They offer a remote program that runs for a full year, so the founders are able to build a stable profitable business for the long-term. TinySeed knows that bootstrappers are capital efficient, so for their program founders don’t have to relocate to a specific location. There is no pressure of raising more capital at the end of the 12 months.

• Unique Feature: Remote one-year accelerator focused on SaaS
• Location: Minneapolis
• Founded in: 2018
• Accelerator Duration: 52 weeks
• Equity Taken: 10% to 20%
• Apply here: https://tinyseed.com/apply

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Make Your Choice

Each accelerator has its pros and cons, but choose yours wisely. Look into their portfolio and determine if they have a strong domain expertise in your niche having previously accelerated great companies from your niche. Another aspect — look into their experts, mentors, coaches, check their backgrounds for relevance to your product at this stage.

Other solutions

Now, let’s be honest: who wants to give up a slice of their company even in exchange for revenue boost? You worked so hard, your company is already sustainable and brings you money. Why would you give away a considerable share of your business or a part of your company’s revenue to a third party? There is a better and easier approach to advance your business and have your B2B SaaS startup revenue increased. 

Comfi

Comfi is a modern Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) payment method designed for B2B SaaS companies and is perfect for B2B SaaS growth-stage startups. It integrates directly into your sales processes either through API on checkout creating a B2C-like experience or by generating payment links from the Comfi dashboard. It was founded to help B2B SaaS vendors sell more annual contracts and get upfront capital, while on the flip side helping startups and SMBs save their runway by paying monthly for their annual contracts with SaaS providers with no interest or monthly premiums.

With Comfi startups and companies can offer their customers to split their SaaS subscription costs and purchase annual plans, but with monthly billing. Your customers can split payments into 12 interest-free tranches over 12 months. Comfi pays you upfront within 7 days. Your customers pay monthly, and enjoy annual plan discounts, you convert them into ARR — double win.

Use our flexible payments plan to scale your business and grow revenue. Comfi has no borders — we support businesses from all over the world if their customers are Stripe users or have bank accounts in the USA, Europe, or GCC.

Also, you can think of Comfi as a tool to apply to your business for its growth. Comfi integrates seamlessly into your sales processes. Sell annual subscriptions to your customers, reduce churn rate and increase your customers’ buying power. Comfi offers two BNPL payment tools:

1. Self-serve checkout integration (Comfi will appear as an additional payment option);
2. Payment links generated by your sales team using our dashboard.

As a result, you grow your customer LTV by around 30% and double your annual plan sales. Increase your company’s revenue today and make your customers love you for the unique experience you offer. They want a flexible schedule to pay for your services too!

• Unique Feature: Acceleration of B2B SaaS startups via split payments
• Location: Worldwide
• Founded in: 2021
• Accelerator Duration: Non-stop 😏
• Equity Taken: None 😉, only small commission per transaction made through Comfi
• Apply here: https://comfi.app/

By selecting partners who understand your reality and market, you’ll boost your growth and reduce the risk of failure. However, if funding is the main headache for you now, you should think of Comfi first. Comfi provides your B2B SaaS startup with a sales boost and makes annual payments affordable even for the smallest startups with no equity taken in exchange. We can’t wait to start working with you and accelerate your B2B SaaS startup growth!

Let’s talk your revenue together

Amal Abdullaev

Co-founder at Comfi

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