Is €60k for 8% a normal accelerator deal?
€60,000 for 8% values your startup at €750,000 after the money, while CEE founders raising pre-seed asked BADideas for a median pre-money valuation of €3.2 million in 2025 and 2026 so far. The median ask is about four times that. The accelerator is buying its stake at a much lower price than a pre-seed investor would, so the deal is worth it only for what the programme gives you beyond the cash.
The figures
| The deal, against a CEE pre-seed round | Value |
|---|---|
| Cash for 8% | €60,000 |
| Post-money it implies | €750,000 |
| Pre-money it implies | €690,000 |
| CEE pre-seed pre-money asked, median, 2025 to 2026 (to date) | €3.2 million |
| Half of CEE pre-seed asks fall between | €1.8 million and €5 million |
In BADideas application data, accelerator alumni got further: 59% reached our investment committee in 2025 and 2026 so far, against 48% of other CEE founders. Shares are of the applications whose pitch deck we read, not of every application we receive. This is an association, not a cause: founders who get into an accelerator may differ in other ways, such as their team.
| CEE applicants, 2026 (to date) | Through an accelerator | Not |
|---|---|---|
| Round asked, median | €580,000 | €500,000 |
| Had revenue | 41% | 38% |
Accelerator alumni are about as far along as other founders when they raise: 41% had revenue, against 38% of other founders.
What is changing
| Quarter | CEE applicants who had been through an accelerator |
|---|---|
| Q2 2025 | 16% |
| Q3 2025 | 14% |
| Q4 2025 | 21% |
| Q1 2026 | 14% |
| Q2 2026 | 18% |
| Q3 2026 | 18% |
17% of CEE applicants in 2026 so far had been through an accelerator, about the same as in 2025.
Across CEE
CEE founders who applied in 2025 and 2026 so far. We show each country with enough applicants; smaller countries count only in the CEE row.
| Where the founder is based | Through an accelerator |
|---|---|
| All of CEE | 17% |
| Baltics | 15% |
| Latvia | 11% |
| Estonia | 21% |
| Lithuania | 12% |
| Poland | 15% |
| Ukraine | 32% |
| Romania | 12% |
| Czechia | 16% |
| Bulgaria | 12% |
Through an accelerator: highest in Ukraine (32%), lowest in Latvia (11%).
What it means for you
- Work out the price before you say yes. Divide the cash by the share: that is the post-money valuation the accelerator is paying, and you can compare it with the pre-seed figures above.
- Pay the difference only for what you cannot get elsewhere. Customers, investors and people who have built the same kind of company are worth equity; office space and generic workshops are not.
- An accelerator is optional. Most founders raising in CEE have not been through one.
- Ask alumni what it did for them. Founders from recent cohorts tell you more than the programme's own numbers.
Related questions
An accelerator is offering €60k for 8%. Is that a normal deal?
It is far below the price of a pre-seed round: €750,000 after the money, against a median pre-money ask of €3.2 million for CEE pre-seed founders. Take it for the programme, not for the price.
How many startups raising in CEE went through an accelerator?
17% of CEE applicants in 2026 so far.
Do accelerator alumni raise bigger rounds?
A little: a median ask of €580,000, against €500,000 for founders who had not been through one.
How we measured it
- On this page: An accelerator is any programme the founder names as one. The pre-money is the valuation founders raising pre-seed asked for, pooled over 2025 and 2026 because few state one. "Reached the investment committee" means the application got past our first screen. Founders who do not mention an accelerator count as not having been through one. Shares are of the applications whose pitch deck we read, not of every application we receive.
- Updated: 12 October 2026.
BADideas.fund, "Is €60k for 8% a normal accelerator deal?", updated 12 October 2026. https://badideas.fund/answers/accelerator-before-raising-cee
Read next
- How many CEE startups raise pre-revenue?
- How much do pre-seed startups in CEE raise?
- Do CEE startups with revenue raise more?
Who we are
We are a pre-seed and seed fund for founders in Central and Eastern Europe. We have built and sold companies ourselves, and since 2022 we have backed more than 40.
We back founders who see something about their market that others do not see yet. They want to change how a whole industry works, and they start small.
Good founders rarely fail on the idea or the product. They fail on selling it. We give your company hands-on help from go-to-market operators who grew Zendesk, Square and Scale AI.