(2025). Startup Accelerators and International Market Entry: Evidence from the German Accelerator ProgramMax Planck Institute for Innovation & Competition Research Paper No. 25-17.
While internationalization efforts can help startups overcome barriers to growth, entering foreign markets remains a significant challenge. Accelerator programs play an important role in supporting startups' scaling ambitions by offering in-depth entrepreneurial learning opportunities. In this study, we examine whether and how such programs can facilitate startup internationalization. To this end, we leverage a unique dataset that combines proprietary application data from the German Accelerator (GA)-a government-financed program designed to support startups' international market entry-with detailed startup-level, founder, and investment information. We find that participating startups significantly raised funding and hired more employees in the GA's target countries relative to a comparison group of startups that were admitted, but did not attend for exogenous reasons. Consistent with our theoretical considerations about an experiential learning mechanism, these effects are muted for startups that took part in online programs that were introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the results are strongest among startups with limited international experience prior to participating. We further support these mechanisms with qualitative evidence from surveying GA alumni. Our study advances the understanding of the potential and limitations of startup accelerators in supporting international market entry, a key strategy for many entrepreneurial ventures today.
