The is a venture-backed accelerator focused on accelerating the development of seed-stage ventures that monetize from enterprises. CB Insights rated Alchemist the top accelerator in 2016 based on median funding rates of its grads. The accelerator’s primary screening criteria is on teams, with primacy placed on having distinctive technical co-founders. The organization provides seed investment into companies it admits, and provides founders a structured path to traction, fundraising, mentorship, and community over the course of a 6 month program. Our backers include many of the top corporate and VC funds in the Valley -- including Khosla Ventures, DFJ, Cisco, Siemens, GE, and Salesforce, among others. The accelerator seeds around 75 enterprise-monetizing ventures / year.
History
The Alchemist Accelerator was founded in 2012 by Stanford University lecturer Ravi Belani. Prior to starting the program, Belani was part of a 3-year entrepreneurship education & outreach program started in the Harvard Club of San Francisco, which transitioned into the formation of the accelerator. Upon the formation of the program, Belani's former firm, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, backed the program with an initial investment. Shortly after, Khosla Ventures and US Venture Partners invested in the program. In late 2013, the company entered into a strategic partnership with Salesforce.com providing enough capital to fund the program through 2017. Following an investment from partner, Cisco Systems in 2014, the accelerator launched a special program targeted at Internet of Things startups. The program opened up a special track of services available for IoT companies, including mentors, technology support, and facilitated access to key partners. In 2014, the program partnered with investment site, AngelList, to launch a syndicate fund. Much like an index fund, this partnership allowed virtually any investor to invest in every member of the Alchemist class all at once.
The Program
The program provides a small cash investment in the form of a convertible note. Even though the program funds startups, they do take a tuition charge, but provide additional capital in the note to cover the tuition charge. Co-working space for companies in the program is provided in San Francisco, Santa Clara, and limited space in Menlo Park. All elements of the program including mentors, meetings and check-ins are optional. The only exception is the Demo-Day, a one-day event that attracts roughly 200 venture capitalists to view the pitches of the startups in the program. At the beginning of the program, companies submit a profile snapshot of their company and needs. The accelerator team syndicates the profile with customer prospects, Feedback Coaches for Fundraising, and Mentors. The program provides an opportunity for companies to casually meet all of these people during a meet and greet. Then, 1:1 meetings are set up, with a core focus on customers and VC's. The intent is for startups to meet 1:1 with investors and customers throughout the first half of the program to fine tune their offering and pitch. Throughout the program, the accelerator holds day-long summits. These day-long events provide startups with an opportunity to meet one on one with high level executives of companies that could be potential customers. Additionally, many venture capitalists attend the summits, providing feedback and introductions to companies looking to raise capital. The accelerator hosts a demo day towards the end of the program where companies get access to pitch funding sources. They also host guest lectures, roundtable discussions, and other social events intended for networking.
Notable Investments
The Alchemist Accelerator has backed approximately 80 startups to date. Notable acquisitions include General Electric's purchase of Berkeley-based machine learning startup, Wise.io, Cisco's purchase of real-time collaboration software, Assemblage, and the acquisition of cloud security company Mobilespan by Dropbox. Other notable investments include the winner of Salesforce's $1 Million Hackathon prize, UPSHOT, influencer marketing platform, NeoReach, and data protection startup CryptoMove.
Statistics
As of September 2019, the program has invested in approximately 400 startups. Since its formation in 2012, 34 of its accelerated companies have been acquired.
