ATDC Launches Mid-Tier Accelerator

The Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) at Georgia Tech is one of the crown jewels of Atlanta's startup ecosystem. ATDC is consistently ranked one of the world’s top technology incubators, and it's no surprise because their success rate is incredible: 90% of companies are successful five years after graduation, graduates have collectively raised more than $2 billion in capital, and 48% of graduates have successfully been acquired, merged with other firms, or launched an IPO.

Even the best can find room to improve and ATDC is doing just that. Right now the incubator is renovating some of their common areas and rebranding and refining their program offerings. Here's a rundown of recent changes you should know about:

• "ATDC Select" (their top tier incubator program), is being rebranded as "ATDC Signature." This program will continue to provide roundtables, Signature only events, advanced industry curriculum, an assigned Entrepreneur In Residence, mentor access, suite space, Design Studio access, and connections to industry folks, investors, and the GT campus.
• ATDC will continue to provide memberships and events to the larger community via ATDC Educate. This programming will include Entrepreneurs Night, Startup Weekends, ATDC Showcase, circles, speaker series, core curriculum, SBIR workshops, Catalyst office hours, and access to teaching mentors.
• The most exciting part of the revamp is the start of a new mid-tier incubator program called Accelerate (which will function as a pipeline for companies to grow their way into ATDC's Signature program). Accelerate will include: founder circles, advanced curriculum, industry curriculum, special customer discovery labs, coaching via assigned mentors and Catalysts, and seed space along with Design Studio access. 23 companies have already applied to take part in Accelerate, which is planned to accommodate around 100 companies. It's exciting to see ATDC cater to an under-served group of entrepreneurs in an effort to get promising talent and ideas further developed into thriving businesses.

Stephen Fleming (pictured above), Vice President at Georgia Tech's Enterprise Innovation Institute, commented "given the constraints of the building, we're very excited about the physical renovation," adding that "a lot of credit goes to Worldpay for showing what can be done, even beyond financial support." (In March Worldpay expanded its commitment to accelerating payments technology innovation with a $1 million gift and mentorship commitment to ATDC)

Renderings of the lobby and community room renovations