Why do we need start-up accelerators: experience of Russian projects in the IIDF program

In one of the previous materials in our blog, we have already considered the difference between start-up accelerators or incubators. In short, it is in the timing and format of project support (usually start-up teams need to move temporarily to an office or coworking shot for them), areas of application (accelerators are more interested in Internet projects), the project stage and the proportion to be given. More often, teams that need to scale up a working business come to accelerators, and the share taken by the accelerator rarely exceeds 5-7%, which leaves room for entrepreneurs to maneuver when communicating with future investors.

Today we would like to talk about the experience of passing the program of acceleration of IIDF by some Russian start-ups - under the cut the history of mistakes, surprises, change of strategies and real results in numbers.
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Why do you need accelerator FRII

Despite the fact that the Internet Initiatives Development Fund is the largest player in the venture capital market in Europe and provides start-ups with significant investments (up to 270 million rubles), the value of the acceleration program launched as part of the fund is not only in money.

The main advantage of the accelerator is the possibility of “speeding up time” - with the help of expert advice, getting access to a wide base of contacts and a well-developed program, entrepreneurs develop the project much more intensively, achieving the results scheduled a year in advance in three months.

As mentioned above, the accelerator's task is to debug business processes and scale business, that is, to create a groundwork for the further development of the project and attract large investments. According to statistics, about a third (27%) of graduate companies of the IIDF accelerator attract investment in the amount of 5 to 30 million rubles.

Examples of improving performance of Russian startups

An example of such an acceleration is a service for compiling the reports of the First Online Accounting Department . The startup team developed it for two years, and then spent three months in the IIDF accelerator.

If during the self-development of business, entrepreneurs managed to get 42 contacts of potential customers, achieve 12 demonstrations and get 19 paying customers, then after passing the acceleration program all indicators increased significantly - the number of demonstrations held was 129, the contact database expanded to 9328 leads, and 22 new entries have appeared.



Another startup that has managed to improve its performance is Pets Ferma, a project for pet lovers. Before entering the accelerator, the company's sales did not exceed 4,000 rubles; after going through a three-month program, this amount increased to 460,000 thousand per month.



UNIM Histology provides accurate, fast and remote cancer diagnostics. The company allows the patient from anywhere in Russia to conduct research in the best laboratory of the Russian Federation in the shortest possible time, without the need to go anywhere. After three months in the accelerator, the project team was able to lower the cost of attracting a paying user (CAC) from 1,666.6 rubles to 623.4 rubles and raise the average income from such a user (ARPPU) from 2305 rubles. to 2850. The total project revenue increased from 76,000 rubles per month to 340,000 per month.

What teams take in the accelerator of IIDF

All start-up accelerators and incubators have certain conditions that must be met by projects applying for support. In order to enter the IIDF accelerator, it is also necessary to meet certain criteria:

• The team must consist of at least two people who are ready to work in coworking 24/7 full time;
• The most interesting topics of the projects include Internet services, mobile-startups, Internet of things and Big Data (once we were offered to invest a pig-breeding complex in Belarus - this is interesting, but in pig farms we are not experts);
• The presence of a ready-made prototype of a product that you can begin to sell to users;
• It is also very desirable to have the first paying clients attracted by the project founders themselves;
• The goal of any startup is to become a large company, so we are interested in projects with an annual turnover potential exceeding $ 10 million over a four-year perspective.

Projects that have been selected should spend three months at the IIDF site - moving the team to Moscow at this time is mandatory for participants of the full-time accelerator, which involves further investments in a startup (for projects that do not fall into it, there is a special correspondence accelerator - we will tell about it in more detail one of the following topics).

Plus, companies can also receive a one-time cash grant, as well as a grant from Microsoft as part of the BizSpark program (software development and testing tools, access to Azure for $ 9,000 thousand per year, access to an app store, etc.). The best startups can count on a cloud grant from the corporation in the amount of $ 60 thousand per year, as well as receiving closed technological consultations on the project.



The fund is ready to invest 1.4 million rubles, of which 800 thousand will be direct investments in the project, and an additional 600 thousand will be spent on the costs of the acceleration program. The share of DIDF in business will be 7%. In addition, if you pass the selection, but for one reason or another you will not be ready to give a share in your startup, you will have the opportunity to pay for the acceleration yourself .

What a startup really gets in the accelerator

Running an acceleration program helps a young company’s team understand “what to do” to succeed. The FRII experts constantly monitor the success of each project, offering their own advice and recommendations on building business processes (testing sales channels, building user support, working on the product, etc.).

Some myths

Certain stereotypes have already formed around the activities of world startup accelerators, some of which may adversely affect the future of specific projects. Finally, dispel some of these myths.

One of the most common is the conviction that only completely beginner projects are accepted into the accelerator - this is by no means the case, the main thing is not that the project has just started, but its quality and prospects.



For example, services 2do2go (event poster of Moscow) and SmartFood (organization of healthy food) before the start of the acceleration program had a turnover of about 1 million rubles, the number of active monthly users (MAU) of the social network project for talented people iFamous exceeded 400 thousand, and the application for learning English Easy Ten downloaded also more than 400 thousand times.

It is also believed that accelerators help not just new companies, but young entrepreneurs - this is also not true: if a new company is founded by an experienced bison from the business, it also has every chance to get support.

Among the founders of the projects, which took the program of acceleration of the IIDF, there are several serial entrepreneurs who run 3-5 or more successful businesses - some of these companies bring their creators more than 500 million rubles a year.

An interesting fact - the average age of the founders of the accelerator companies is approaching 30 years (there are founders and over 40 years old) - everyone has a chance.

Attention! Till October 20, the receipt of applications in the course of the next set of projects in the IIDF accelerator continues. We are waiting for your applications !

You can learn more about our accelerator from a special presentation: