Startup accelerator

Startup accelerators, also known as seed accelerators, are fixed-term, cohort-based programs, that include mentorship and educational components and culminate in a public pitch event or demo day. While traditional business incubators are often government-funded, generally take no equity, and rarely provide funding, accelerators can be either privately or publicly funded and cover a wide range of industries. Unlike business incubators, the application process for seed accelerators is open to anyone, but highly competitive. There are specific types of seed accelerators, such as corporate accelerators, which are often subsidiaries or programs of larger corporations that act like seed accelerators.
Distinctive qualities.
The main differences between business incubators, startup studios and accelerators are:
The primary value to the entrepreneur is derived from the mentoring, connections, and the recognition of being chosen to be a part of the accelerator. The business model is based on generating venture style returns, not rent, or fees for services.
Seed accelerators do not necessarily need to include a physical space, but many do. The process that startups go through in the accelerator can be separated into five distinct phases: awareness, application, program, demo day, and post demo day.
Accelerators provide enough funding to get a company to ‘Demo Day,’ from which point the startup is on its own.
History.
The first seed accelerator was Y Combinator, started in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2005, and then later moved to Silicon Valley by Paul Graham. It was followed by TechStars (in 2006), Seedcamp (in 2007), AngelPad (in 2010), Startupbootcamp (in 2010), Tech Wildcatters (in 2011), several accelerators of SOSV, and Boomtown Boulder (2014).
In Europe, the first accelerator program was started by Accelerace in 2009 in Denmark (strongly subsidised by the Danish government) followed shortly after by Startup Wise Guys in 2012 in Estonia.
With the growing popularity of seed accelerator programs in the US, Europe has seen an increase in accelerators to support a growing startup ecosystem. Top-rated seed accelerator programs in Europe include Seedcamp (based in London), HighTechXL (based in Eindhoven), Startupbootcamp (pan European accelerator with program locations and office spaces based in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Berlin, Israel, Eindhoven, Istanbul and London) and Startup Wise Guys (Europe's most experienced B2B startup accelerator). 
Forbes published an analysis of startup accelerators in April 2012. Since 2010 there has been substantial growth of Corporate Accelerator programs, which are sponsored by established organizations but follow similar principles.
In 2011 Matthew Clifford and Alice Bentinck, formerly management consultants at McKinsey & Company, co-founded Entrepreneur First, a London-based accelerator which guides promising tech graduates and those already working in technology firms to design and run their own startups. Entrepreneur First differs from other accelerators such as Y Combinator and Wayra in that it works with individuals rather than companies.
With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, many accelerators such as Y Combinator, SOSV's family of accelerators, and BEAMSTART have shifted their approaches by running most of the programs and Demo Days online.