An innovation accelerator is one of the most effective ways large organizations can nurture breakthrough ideas and scale them into viable products or services. Unlike traditional innovation approaches, an innovation accelerator emphasizes speed by providing the resources, mentorship, and infrastructure that internal teams or startups need to bring ideas to market faster.
An innovation accelerator helps organizations:
- Accelerate the development of new ideas.
- Provide access to expert mentorship and resources.
- Reduce time to market for innovative solutions.
- Support collaboration with internal teams and startups.
- Strengthen long-term innovation capabilities.
In today's competitive business environment, companies must innovate continuously to maintain their competitive advantage, and an innovation accelerator provides a structured, high-impact way to achieve this. In this article, we'll explore what innovation accelerators are, how they benefit businesses, and how to build an effective innovation accelerator program that supports both internal and external innovation.
What Is an Innovation Accelerator?
An innovation accelerator is a program designed to rapidly scale innovative solutions into market-ready solutions by providing resources such as mentorship, funding, and technical support. However, the term “innovation accelerator” can refer to several types of initiatives:
Corporate Accelerators: Programs run by companies to nurture internal projects or collaborate with startups to bring new solutions to market.
Startup Accelerators: These programs focus on helping early-stage startups scale their business by providing mentorship, funding, and market access.
Academic or Research-Based Accelerators: These programs are tied to research institutions or universities, helping academic innovations transition into commercial ventures.
For this article, we’ll focus on corporate innovation accelerators, which allow large companies to fast-track their innovation efforts. These accelerators offer key advantages such as reducing time-to-market for new ideas, fostering a culture of innovation, and enabling partnerships with startups. By providing access to expert guidance and resources, corporate accelerators help companies refine ideas more effectively and achieve higher innovation ROI.
How to Set Up an Innovation Accelerator Program
Creating a successful corporate innovation accelerator requires a focused approach that aligns with your company’s strategic goals and fosters both internal and external innovation.
1. Define Clear Objectives and Align with Corporate Strategy
The first step in building an innovation accelerator is determining what you want the program to achieve. Are you aiming to scale internal innovation, collaborate with external startups, or both? Your objectives should align closely with the organization's broader innovation strategy.
For example, if your goal is to develop new products or services, your innovation accelerator should be designed to fast-track projects that support those outcomes. Establish clear KPIs from the outset, such as the number of new products launched or strategic partnerships formed, to measure success and guide continuous improvement.
2. Secure Leadership Buy-In and Funding
A successful innovation accelerator requires both financial investment and strong leadership support. Secure C-suite buy-in by highlighting long-term benefits such as improved innovation ROI, faster time to market, and greater access to external ideas and expertise.
Supporting your business case with relevant data and successful case studies can help demonstrate the program's potential value. Adequate funding also ensures participants have access to essential resources, including expert mentors, R&D facilities, and prototyping tools.
3. Build a Strong Network of Mentors and Partners
A vital part of any innovation accelerator is the network of mentors, partners, and experts that support participants. Build a diverse advisory group that includes:
- Internal business leaders.
- Industry experts.
- Venture capitalists or technology specialists.
- Universities, research centers, and startup hubs.
This network provides valuable guidance while opening access to additional resources, expertise, and market opportunities. For organizations collaborating with startups, these partnerships strengthen the innovation accelerator by connecting participants with the knowledge and support needed to develop and scale successful solutions.
4. Offer Comprehensive Resources and Support
An innovation accelerator is only as effective as the resources it provides. Ensure participants have access to everything they need, from office space and R&D facilities to marketing, legal, and financial guidance. This support helps teams move quickly from ideation to execution.
For external startups, provide tools that integrate their solutions with the company's existing infrastructure to enable smoother collaboration and reduce implementation challenges. Equipping participants with the right resources strengthens the innovation accelerator and improves the likelihood of successful outcomes.
5. Create a Competitive and Collaborative Environment
The most successful innovation accelerator programs foster both competition and collaboration. By designing challenges or competitions within the program, organizations encourage participants to push boundaries, develop stronger ideas, and strive for excellence. At the same time, it's important to create a collaborative environment where teams can share insights, test concepts, and build on each other's innovations. Regular pitch sessions, cross-departmental teamwork, and shared digital platforms all help strengthen communication and improve innovation outcomes.
6. Continuously Evaluate and Iterate
Regular evaluation is essential to the long-term success of an innovation accelerator. Track project progress using predefined KPIs and gather participant feedback throughout the program to identify opportunities for improvement and make timely adjustments.
Regular reviews can help you:
- Refine project direction when needed.
- Provide additional resources or expertise.
- Measure progress against key objectives.
- Improve future accelerator cycles.
At the end of each innovation accelerator cycle, conduct a comprehensive review to evaluate outcomes and identify lessons learned. Continuously refining the program helps strengthen future iterations and maximize long-term innovation success.
Leveraging Innovation Accelerator Software to Support Your Accelerator
Innovation management software can play a critical role in optimizing corporate accelerators by streamlining idea evaluation, collaboration, and tracking. There are several types of software that can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of your innovation accelerator program:
Idea Management Software
This software enables companies to collect, prioritize, and evaluate ideas from both internal teams and external partners. By providing a centralized platform, it simplifies the process of identifying high-potential ideas for the accelerator. Teams can submit concepts, and decision-makers can quickly review and filter ideas based on criteria like feasibility, market potential, and alignment with company strategy. Additionally, it helps track progress from idea submission to implementation, ensuring that promising innovations aren’t lost in the shuffle.
Technology Scouting Software
Technology scouting software is crucial when working with external startups in an accelerator. It helps companies identify and track emerging technologies or innovative startups that align with their strategic objectives. This type of software allows for a more structured approach to finding external innovation, simplifying the search for potential collaborators. This can significantly expand the range of solutions the accelerator brings into the company, ensuring a constant flow of fresh, cutting-edge ideas from the outside.
Innovation Portfolio Management Software
Managing multiple innovation projects within an accelerator can become complex, especially in large organizations. Innovation portfolio management software provides oversight of all ongoing projects, helping teams assess which initiatives are delivering value and which may need further resources or adjustments. This tool enables decision-makers to monitor progress, allocate resources effectively, and ensure that projects are aligned with the company’s overall strategic goals. With a clear view of the innovation portfolio, companies can prioritize high-potential projects and avoid wasting resources on initiatives that don’t align with long-term objectives.
Case Study: ICL’s BIG Innovation Accelerator
ICL Group’s BIG (Business Innovation for Growth) Accelerator, launched in 2020, showcases how innovation accelerators can harness internal innovation at scale. Unlike traditional accelerators that focus on external startups, BIG focuses on crowdsourcing ideas from over 13,000 employees worldwide through the PITCH BIG platform, powered by Qmarkets’ idea management software.
The program is designed around three core objectives: enhancing ideation, accelerating execution, and improving collaboration. A network of over 300 internal experts evaluates ideas, ensuring high-quality projects progress swiftly. By 2022, BIG had generated $262 million in annual operating income, with over 1,150 completed projects.
What makes BIG unique is its focus on internal innovation, where employees play a central role in driving ideas. The program emphasizes transparent performance tracking with the BIG Index, fostering healthy competition and engagement across business units. This internal focus contrasts with conventional accelerators that typically partner with startups for external innovation.
Best practices from BIG include fostering a culture of transparency and accountability through performance metrics, rewarding employee contributions, and aligning innovation efforts with strategic business goals. Other organizations can adopt these principles to encourage greater engagement and internal collaboration within their own accelerators.
The success of BIG demonstrates how a well-structured internal accelerator, backed by robust idea management software, can transform employee insights into impactful business results, driving both innovation and operational efficiency.
Building a Strong Corporate Innovation Accelerator
A successful corporate innovation accelerator helps organizations rapidly scale innovative ideas through both internal initiatives and external collaboration. By aligning the innovation accelerator with strategic goals, securing leadership support, and providing the right resources, businesses can reduce time to market and improve innovation ROI.
Key Takeaways
- Align the innovation accelerator with business strategy.
- Support participants with leadership, mentorship, and resources.
- Measure success using clear metrics and continuous improvement.
Strong mentorship networks, transparent performance metrics, and robust idea management software further strengthen an innovation accelerator's effectiveness. With the right structure in place, organizations can transform promising ideas into measurable business value while building long-term innovation capabilities and competitive advantage.
Explore how Qmarkets suite of innovation management solutions can drive success for your innovation accelerator.
Innovation Accelerator: Common Questions Answered
Most corporate accelerator programs run between three and six months, although timelines vary depending on project complexity, business objectives, participant availability, and expected commercialization milestones.
Organizations typically assess applicants based on strategic alignment, innovation potential, technical feasibility, team capabilities, market opportunity, and their ability to execute ideas within program timelines successfully.
Accelerator programs benefit industries including manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, technology, energy, retail, and telecommunications by helping organizations solve complex challenges and commercialize innovative solutions more efficiently.
Projects not selected can still provide valuable learning opportunities. Organizations often retain promising concepts, offer feedback, encourage refinement, and consider them for future innovation initiatives.
Maintain momentum by assigning project owners, monitoring progress, securing executive sponsorship, allocating ongoing resources, and regularly reviewing outcomes to support implementation and continuous innovation across the organization.
