This study provides new evidence regarding the significance of enrolling in a seed accelerator programme for the performance and prospects of startups. The main novelty and contributions of this work lie in siting the analysis within an emerging entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) and exploring the impact of both the business model and technological levels of new ventures. We tested a set of six hypotheses through empirical analysis of a dataset comprising 735 startups located in Valencia (Spain), a region representing the category of an emerging, medium-sized EE. The findings revealed that within this EE, the advantages of being accelerated tended to diminish and were more marginal than expected. Furthermore, the seed accelerator profile appeared to be of little importance to the prospects and attractiveness of firms to investors. Interestingly, their technological levels were strongly correlated with higher investment but not with a higher number of employees. The expected direct relationship between funding and firm size was also confirmed. A particularly noteworthy finding was the direct relationship between a higher technological level and business-to-business (B2B) models, as well as the opposite relationship for business-to-consumer (B2C) models. These findings have several significant implications for management and policymakers, including the apparent lack of advantages for accelerated firms in closing large investment rounds and the recommendation that incubators prioritise new ventures with high technological capacity and focussing on B2B models. Finally, we highlight the profile of startups with strong prospects for attracting investment and scaling up.

这项研究提供了新的证据，证明参加种子加速器计​​划对初创企业的绩效和前景的重要性。这项工作的主要新颖性和贡献在于将分析置于新兴的创业生态系统（EE）中，并探索新企业的商业模式和技术水平的影响。我们通过对位于巴伦西亚（西班牙）的 735 家初创公司组成的数据集进行实证分析，测试了一组六个假设，巴伦西亚是一个代表新兴中型 EE 类别的地区。研究结果显示，在这个 EE 范围内，加速的优势往往会减弱，并且比预期更微不足道。此外，种子加速器的概况似乎对公司的前景和对投资者的吸引力并不重要。有趣的是，他们的技术水平与较高的投资密切相关，但与较多的员工数量无关。资金和公司规模之间预期的直接关系也得到了证实。一个特别值得注意的发现是更高的技术水平与企业对企业（B2B）模式之间存在直接关系，而企业对消费者（B2C）模式则相反。这些发现对管理层和政策制定者有几个重大影响，包括加速企业在完成大型投资回合中明显缺乏优势，以及孵化器优先考虑具有高技术能力并专注于 B2B 模式的新企业的建议。最后，我们重点介绍了那些在吸引投资和扩大规模方面具有良好前景的初创企业。