Accélérer les entreprises ! Une évaluation ex post

Accelerators are selective and intensive programs to support company managers, in a cohort approach, in order to develop the growth potential of their business. They appeared in the mid-2000s in the United States and have since spread throughout the world. In France, the Accelerator Program implemented by Bpifrance since 2015 is part of this group, while having the particularity of being strictly non-financial. Participating companies benefit from advice, training and networking, without their participation in the Accelerator giving them privileged access to investments and equity investments, as is the case for many other Accelerator programs. This original aspect of the program allows the effect of the non-financial component of an accelerator program to be identified. We evaluate the effect of this program based on accounting data from companies covering the period 2010-2018, comparing three cohorts of accelerated companies with companies of the same characteristics that did not benefit from the program. For the first cohort, we find a significant impact on the probability of moving from small and medium enterprise to midcaps status. For the last two cohorts, we find a positive effect of the program on both the increase in sales performance, of the order of 10 percentage points, on value added by 16 percentage points, and on firms' tangible investment, which increases tenfold under the program.