From: http://www.bizjournals.com/

Y Combinator is generally acknowledged to be the accelerator program with the most successful startup alumni — including multi-billion dollar businesses like Airbnb, Stripe and Dropbox.

But a study published by investment research firm CB Insights on Tuesday said the Mountain View accelerator trails another Bay Area program, when measured by the median amount of money raised by founders who go through its program.

No. 1 is Alchemist Accelerator, according to the ranking done by Samir Kaji, a managing director at First Republic Bank who previously worked at Silicon Valley Bank.

Startups that go through the San Francisco accelerator led by Ravi Belani raise a median of $8.1 million in funding and about 32 percent of them get follow-on investments.

YC founders raised a median of $4 million and 33 percent of them get follow-on funding.

TechStars, which operates in 11 cities outside of Silicon Valley, was No. 3 in terms of the median amount its alumni raised — $3.36 million. But it was No. 1 in terms of follow-on funding — 34 percent of its graduates got more than one round of investment.

500 Startups came in at No. 4 in terms of follow-on funding, with 22 percent of its alumni getting more than one round. But the Mountain View-based program was No. 6 in terms of the median amount raised.

Kaji cautioned that his study only tracked publicly disclosed funding rounds that happened before April of last year and he only examined the 10 programs identified as the most active by CB Insights. He also only counted startups that had raised more than $750,000.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the accelerators listed … have internal metrics that demonstrate portfolio follow-on rates that are 10 to 15 actual percentage points higher than noted here,” he wrote.

Accelerators that work with large volumes of startups, like YC and 500 Startups, may also be at a disadvantage when ranked by median amounts raised, in aggregate.

Alchemist focuses narrowly on enterprise-focused startups and works with less than half the number of companies in a year than YC or 500 work with in any given class.

But Kaji believes his study will be useful to founders as they weigh which programs to apply to.

“While there are many qualitative reasons to join an accelerator outside of funding assistance, funding is and will always remain a critical driver to company scale,” he wrote. “As a result, founders are well-served to assess funding track records of accelerators when deciding which programs to apply to.”

Here is how he stacked them in his study:

Median funding

1. Alchemist Accelerator (San Francisco) — $8.1 million.

2. Y Combinator (Mountain View) — $4 million.

3. Capital Innovators (St. Louis) — $3.5 million.

4. TechStars (Boulder) — $3.36 million.

5. MassChallenge (Boston) — $2.78 million.

6. AngelPad (San Francisco) — $2.4 million.

7. 500 Startups (Mountain View) — $2.3 million.

8. Portland Seed Fund — $2.1 million

9. Entrepreneurs Roundtable (New York) — $2.08 million.

10. DreamIt Ventures (Philadelphia) — $1.98 million.

Follow-on funding

1. TechStars — 34 percent.

2. Y Combinator — 33 percent.

3. Alchemist Accelerator — 32 percent.

4. 500 Startups — 22 percent.

5. Entrepreneurs Roundtable — 15 percent.

6. AngelPad — 14 percent.

7. Capital Innovators — 14 percent.

8. Portland Seed Fund — 7 percent.

9. DreamIt Ventures — 4 percent.

5. MassChallenge — 3 percent.