According to a recent report from Pitchbook, the seed-stage investor leads other start-up accelerators in most metrics, including exit value and unicorn creation rates. In fact, nearly five percent of the start-ups that have gone through Y Combinator since 2010 have become unicorns, a plateau achieved when the company achieves a valuation of at least one billion dollars.
The report compares the performance of the nation’s five largest accelerators, which are cohort-based programs that provide educational workshops and networking opportunities for startup founders. Accelerators typically provide a small amount of seed investment in exchange for equity in the company.
Between 2010 and 2022, Y Combinator recorded its peak cohort exit value of $93.3 billion, according to this article in Institutional Investor. This was achieved by its 2012 cohort, which included the crypto exchange platform Coinbase and the grocery delivery app Instacart. In contrast, the highest cohort exit values during the same period were significantly lower for other start-up accelerators: Techstars at $9.8 billion, MassChallenge at $16.9 billion, and SOSV at $0.6 billion.
The PitchBook analysis also notes that the success of Y Combinator is likely due to both the high quality of its program and the expertise of its mentors. In addition, start-ups that are supported by Y Combinator are more likely to focus on the global market, which often results in high scalability.
