Emergence of accelerators and accelerator Policy: The case of Australia

This study has explored the emergence of accelerators and related policy in the context of the Australian innovation system. Accelerators first appeared in 2010 with little formal coordination between them, followed by the development of accelerator policy in 2015 and its implementation in 2016. In comparison, the VC industry and VC policy in Australia started off with a neglected government report (i.e., the 1983 Espie Report), followed by the emergence of AVCAL in 1992 and the first formal VC fund in 1994, culminating in the introduction of VC policy 15 years after the report (1998). The evolution of the VC industry also suffered setbacks due to unfortunate timing with the burst of the dot-com bubble and GFC. Meanwhile, accelerators appeared in Australia largely independent of policy efforts, with only a few being capitalized via early stage VC policy programs. The federal and state governments were comparatively quick to learn about accelerators and design policy for accelerators while also reconsidering changes to complementary policies. Simultaneously, the total number of accelerators has been growing rapidly and accelerator business models are evolving at an incredible pace and hybridizing with incubation, co-working, VC, mentoring, higher education, professional services and other organizational types.