Indian accelerator among top 3 in emerging markets ranking

An Indian accelerator programme has been ranked third in emerging markets by Seedstars World, a Swiss company that promotes startups around the world.
ISME ACE, a Mumbai-headquarteredFinTech accelerator which aims to turn tech into marketable products, emerged among the top three in a definitive ranking compiled by the Seedstars.
India did well overall, with its thinkQbate accelerator ranked at number six, Spark10 Accelerator ranked at number 10, and Satoshi Studios: Blockchain Incubator ranked at number 13 across emerging markets.
This years ranking was topped by The Nucleus, run by the UK Lebanon Tech Hub (UKLTH) a joint initiative by Banque du Liban, Lebanons Central Bank, and the UK government through the British embassy in Beirut.

"Accelerator packages arent easy to compare as they offer different structures (equity vs convertible), sometimes contain programme fees, run for different lengths and of course be of different quality," said Charlie Graham-Brown, chief financial officer (CFO) at Seedstars World.
ISME ACE was ranked as one of the best in terms of the value it provides and the benefits it gives to start-ups who join its programme.

The rankings are based on Seedstars' analysis of data from 44 start-up programmes across the developed world and emerging markets.
The cash made available to start-ups, equity offered and programme fees were among the factors taken into account to arrive at the final list.

The Nucleus programme came out on top with its participating companies valued at an average of USD 1,616,667 and it taking up the lowest equity stake in any start-ups who come on board, an average of just 3 per cent.
Most other emerging countries in the rankings took a percentage stake in double figures, the highest being 22 per cent from an accelerator in Ghana.
Other accelerators in the emerging markets rankings included Argentinas Eklos, which came in second place with its companies valued at an average USD 1,209,000.
Indias ISME ACE was third with companies valued at an average of USD 1,150,000, Omans Wadi Accelerator in fourth place with companies valued at USD 1,089,000 and the UAEs Turn8 was fifth with companies valued at USD 1,045,000.

Other accelerator programmes in the rankings included those from Mexico, Jordan, Brazil, Ghana, Tunisia, Nigeria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and all these other emerging markets had companies valued at averages of less than USD 1 million.
The objective of the analysis was to determine how the offerings of different acceleration, growth and incubation programmes compared on global benchmarks.