The concept of incubators is often confused with that of accelerators. The former are those that support entrepreneurs from the birth of the idea and help them to establish it through consulting, training and often offer them the infrastructure to work from there. On the other hand, accelerators work with already formed and mature companies, which require an injection of capital and advice to accelerate their growth.
The concept of accelerators had its beginnings in 2005, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with the Y Combinator accelerator, which proposed a business incubation model combined with seed funding.
The incubator was responsible for selecting projects of interest and providing them with office space, management advice, investment connections and seed capital. All this with the aim of growing at a faster pace than the normal market. Dropbox and Airbnb were among the projects in which this accelerator collaborated.
According to the Global Accelerator Report, there are currently close to 400 accelerators worldwide, which have invested approximately $190 million in some 900 startups. In Latin America, the capital invested has been $30 million dollars, and countries such as Chile, Brazil and Uruguay stand out in the list of the top ten countries with the highest investment in startups.
Natty Zola, director of TechStars, the world's largest venture capital incubator, explains the important role of incubators: "They are a sure way to help startups grow by learning from experts, finding great mentoring activities and connecting them with a powerful network of contacts. They provide resources that reduce the cost of creating a startup and the initial capital a team needs to get started or to achieve key milestones in the earliest stages. They have become the new business school".
In the case of Costa Rica, there are currently few accelerators supporting entrepreneurs in the country. One of them is Carao Ventures, which provides access to mentors and capital from its own network of angel investors. They have evaluated more than 2000 projects and as a basic requirement they ask for entrepreneurs with the capacity to execute and with an innovative business idea that has been tested at least in an experimental stage. Carao Venture injects an average initial capital of $25,000 and then seeks capital through its network of 30 angel investors or other means.
Another incubator currently available in the country is GN Plus, and its projects come from the incubation process of Parque-TEC. These incubators are preferably looking for projects related to mobile platforms, advertising, digital products and services, media, visual communication and entertainment.
Grupo Nación invests in the infrastructure and operational management costs of each company, the amount invested can be up to $50,000. It also supports them in the creation of alliances with existing businesses of the group. Both Parque-TEC and Grupo Nación contribute their experience of more than 70 years in the communication business to promote new businesses.
As previously mentioned, one of the advantages of accelerators is that they allow the entrepreneur to generate a wide network of contacts, including both other entrepreneurs and mentors. Mentors are a key part of the accelerators, since they are people who have personally experienced the challenge of creating a startup and therefore have a lot of experience in the subject.
Finally, the key role played by accelerators in the entrepreneurial ecosystem becomes visible, betting on projects in which no bank or investment fund is willing to risk. Their support is fundamental, and thanks to them many startups have managed to take off, go to market and attract more capital.
Edited by Natalia Rodríguez
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