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- Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator (aka ER Accelerator, or ERA) is an American seed accelerator launched in January 2011. ERA runs two four-month startup accelerator programs per year, the first starting in January ("winter program") and the second starting in June ("summer program"). By analogy to education terminology, candidates for each semiannual accelerator program are called "applicants". The group of startup companies admitted into each semiannual cohort are collectively referred to as a "class". Startups that successfully graduate the accelerator program are called "alumni". ERA alumni startup companies include Parking Panda (online parking app),Cups (mobile coffee app), Select (members-only loyalty charge card), Squarefoot (commercial real estate search and concierge app), WebThriftStore, PublicStuff (app for citizens to submit requests to subscribing municipal governments), numberFire (transparent statistical analysis of sporting data), DogSpot (formerly Dog Parker) (pay-by-the-minute doghouse service), and Flourish Savings (a white-label, turnkey banking app that uses automated saving rules, gamification, sweepstake prizes, and personal trivia to cultivate good financial habits). ERA has launched over 226 startups which have raised more than US$1 billion and have a collective market valuation of over $5 billion (as of April 2021). New York City has risen to second place (still behind Silicon Valley) in the startup venture investment market, passing significant global hubs such as London, Beijing, Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, and Boston, according to 2019 global ranking by Startup Genome. Some well-known startups have now sprung out of NYC, such as Foursquare, Kickstarter, Gilt, Etsy, Tumblr. DoubleClick, and MongoDB. These developments gave Manhattan the nickname "Silicon Alley". ERA operates within this New York startup ecosystem. New York's largest organization focused on the New York technology, startup, and entrepreneurial ecosystem, AlleyWatch, described ERA as "the longest-running NYC accelerator program" and "one of the most successful accelerators in the country." Forbes says that many consider ERA to be "the top tech accelerator in New York." Independent academic research organization SARP (Seed Accelerators Ranking Project) ranked ERA in the top 20 seed accelerators of the U.S. in each of the 4 years 2012 -2015, but has never included ERA in their metal tiers (e.g., platinum, gold, silver). Growth Mentor describes ERA as "New York City’s largest accelerator program." Ideamotive describes ERA as "one of the all-time favorites of the New York startup scene." Of the over 100 accelerators and incubators operating in NYC, Crain's New York Business magazine described ERA as the "best-known" NYC tech accelerator. Crain's also ranked ERA #1 most active VC firm in the New York metropolitan area in 2019 (with 27 investments), and fifth in terms of funding round dollars (with $47.2 million). (en)
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