The California Business Incubation Alliance, a best practices organization serving practitioners in incubation and acceleration throughout California, has released a new report on the changing landscape of incubators and accelerators.

The new report, California Tool Works, details more than a year of interviews, surveys, and research into the best practices of incubators and accelerators, and the startups moving through these programs.

No two programs are exactly alike, and they offer vastly different kinds of support to the startups they serve.

While the model continues to mature, most programs in the accelerator category are new within the last five years. This represents both great opportunity for entrepreneurs regardless of industry, and constantly shifting offerings as programs look for competitive advantage and differentiating factors.

Some of the key findings of the study include:

More than $16 billion injected into portfolio companies of programs studied since 2004
Average annual accelerator investments over $400,000 into the local economy, including staff, space, and consumables
A dramatic increase in the number of programs since 2010
Increases in the number of programs in "heavier" industries, including wet lab-oriented biotech, electronics, and hardware programs.

This research project was supported by Wells Fargo, General Electric (GE Ventures), and Bayer.

To continue reading and for a copy of the report, please CLICK HERE.