Cincinnati's 15 Best Startup Accelerators & Incubators [2024]

Updated: January 20th, 2022

Are you looking for an accelerator program in Cincinnati city?

Did you know that according to a recent analysis from Zillow, Cincinnati ranks among the nation's top up-and-coming tech markets?

If you're starting a startup in Cincinnati, you might be wondering what startup accelerators or incubators exist in the area. Here's the full list:

Startup Accelerators & Business Incubators In Cincinnati

# Accelerator/Incubator Funding Location Apply
1 Aviatra Accelerators Not Disclosed Cincinnat... Apply
2 The Brandery $100K Cincinnati Apply
3 Cintrifuse Not Disclosed Cincinnati Apply
4 CincyTech Not Disclosed Cincinnati Apply
5 First Batch $10K Cincinnati Apply
6 Hillman $125K Cincinnati Apply
7 HCDC Not Disclosed Cincinnati Apply
8 Minority Business Accelerator Not Disclosed Cincinnati Apply
9 OCEAN Accelerator $50K Cincinnati Apply
10 Square 1 Not Disclosed Cincinnat... Apply
11 gBeta $25K Milwaukee... Apply
12 Cincinnati Music Accelerator Not Disclosed Cincinnati Apply
13 Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub Not Disclosed Cincinnati Apply
14 MORTAR Not Disclosed Cincinnati Apply
15 Seed Strategy Not Disclosed Cincinnati Apply

Cincinnati's 15 Best Startup Accelerators & Incubators [2024]

1. Aviatra Accelerators

  • Location: Cincinnati, Covington

  • Industry: All Industries

  • Investment Size: Not Disclosed

  • Program: 9 Weeks

Aviatra Accelerators is a non-profit organization that helps women entrepreneurs start and sustain a business. They have an experienced team that provides resources, guidance, and mentorship for entrepreneurs. Additionally, they provide networking opportunities and access to capital. They host three different tailored programs according to the needs of the business startups, namely; explore, launch and grow.

Apply to Aviatra Accelerators, or learn more ➜

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2. The Brandery

  • Location: Cincinnati

  • Industry: All Industries

  • Investment Size: $100K

  • Program: 12 Weeks

The Brandery is an accelerator program that works towards branding, marketing, and designing startup business firms. Here, startups are paired with mentors and world-class agencies who help them to become big and renowned business companies. They provide startups with financing, networking, and mentoring opportunities. The Brandery runs a 12 week accelerator program in Cincinnati and offers $100K as cash and $200K of additional benefits to the startups.

Apply to The Brandery , or learn more ➜

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3. Cintrifuse

  • Location: Cincinnati

  • Industry: Technology Industry

  • Investment Size: Not Disclosed

  • Program: Not Disclosed

Cintrifuse is a tech startup hub that stimulates the economy and invigorates the community. Its mission is to attract, support and inspire tech startups on their growth journey. They provide access to co-working space, cutting-edge technologies, mentorship, financial returns, investment pools, entrepreneurial education, and networking opportunities to tech startups. They help startups to discover innovations and connect to industry-leading customers.

Apply to Cintrifuse , or learn more ➜

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4. CincyTech

  • Location: Cincinnati

  • Industry: Science, Technology, Healthcare, and Digital Industry

  • Investment Size: Not Disclosed

  • Program: Not Disclosed

CincyTech is an accelerator program that transforms innovations and ideas into world-class digital and health companies. They focus on the industries like; life sciences, digital health, enterprise software, and business software applications. The team at CincyTech provides advice, capital, mentorship, and commercialization opportunities to startups.

Apply to CincyTech, or learn more ➜

5. First Batch

  • Location: Cincinnati

  • Industry: Physical Products and Local Manufacturing

  • Investment Size: $10K

  • Program: 4 Months

First Batch is the first accelerator program in the USA that helps startup business firms with local manufacturing and physical products. They help entrepreneurs to convert product prototypes into a finished and manufactured products. First Batch provides co-working space, mentorship, meetings, workshops, and prototyping tools to the participating entrepreneurs during the 4-month program.

Apply to First Batch, or learn more ➜

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6. Hillman

  • Location: Cincinnati

  • Industry: Technology Industry

  • Investment Size: $125K

  • Program: 12 Weeks

Hillman accelerator program empowers early-stage tech startups through mentorship, business capital, and various opportunities. They have a dedicated team of people who operate an inclusive entrepreneurial education program for startups. This program runs for 12 weeks in Cincinnati and offers a seed investment of $125K to selected companies.

Apply to Hillman, or learn more ➜

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7. HCDC

  • Location: Cincinnati

  • Industry: All Industries

  • Investment Size: Not Disclosed

  • Program: Not Disclosed

HCDC is the largest startup business incubator program in Southwest Ohio. This program helps tech entrepreneurs to launch their businesses through mentorship, coaching, workshops, financial advisory support, co-working space, innovative programming, a diverse learning environment, and access to capital and networking. In the year 2020, they have helped 72 businesses and have raised a capital of $9.7M for them.

Apply to HCDC, or learn more ➜

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8. Minority Business Accelerator

  • Location: Cincinnati

  • Industry: All Industries

  • Investment Size: Not Disclosed

  • Program: Not Disclosed

Minority Business Accelerator is an initiative by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. This program accelerates the development of minority business enterprises and aims at strengthening and expanding the community of minority entrepreneurs. They provide support, mentorship, and fundraising opportunities to minority startups and help them make their business successful.

Apply to Minority Business Accelerator, or learn more ➜

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9. OCEAN Accelerator

  • Location: Cincinnati

  • Industry: All Industries

  • Investment Size: $50K

  • Program: 16 Weeks

OCEAN Accelerator program is a high-tech program that helps startup businesses to launch and grow in the market. This program hosts workshop sessions on topics such as; revenue generations and assumptions, investor readiness, leadership development, and value proportion design. Participating startups will have access to a mentorship network, a legal network, specialized curriculum, training programs, and seed investment of $50K.

Apply to OCEAN Accelerator, or learn more ➜

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10. Square 1

  • Location: *Cincinnati, Covington *

  • Industry: All Industries

  • Investment Size: Not Disclosed

  • Program: 4 Weeks

Square 1 is an incubator program that guides and helps next-generation leaders, starters, and innovators to prepare for the future. Here at Square 1, ideas are grown into emerging businesses. They educate, support, uncover, and inspire young entrepreneurs and provides them the opportunities to identify and solve challenging business problems. They teach aspiring entrepreneurs about critical thinking, communication&networking, opportunity recognition, innovation, and real-world experiences.

Apply to Square 1, or learn more ➜

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11. gBeta

  • Location: Milwaukee, Madison, Toronto, Oklahoma City
  • Industry: All Industries
  • Investment Size: $25K
  • Program: 7 Weeks
  • Equity Taken: Not Disclosed

gBETA is a nationally ranked startup accelerator program that helps early-stage startup companies. In this seven-week program, individualized training, mentorship, and one-on-one meetings are designed for entrepreneurs. They host a weekly launch and learn series in which topics such as marketing, funding, investor pitches, and business revenue models are discussed.

Apply to gBeta , or learn more ➜

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12. Cincinnati Music Accelerator

  • Location: Cincinnati

  • Industry: Music Industry

  • Investment Size: Not Disclosed

  • Program: Not Disclosed

Cincinnati Music Accelerator (CMA) accelerates and helps talented entrepreneurs who would like to build their careers in the music industry. They empower and encourage entrepreneur’s imagination and innovation in whatever they do. They also provide mentorship, guidance, and necessary craft and skills to them. CMA runs four different programs to help entrepreneurs make a professional career in music; Music Business, Youth Music Accelerator, Vitality Program, and The Street Stage Project.

Apply to Cincinnati Music Accelerator, or learn more ➜

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13. Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub

  • Location: Cincinnati

  • Industry: Social Industry

  • Investment Size: Not Disclosed

  • Program: Not Disclosed

Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub believes that social enterprises make the community stronger. They help social entrepreneurs build and scale their businesses. They provide necessary tools, guidance, support, mentorship, and connections to the entrepreneurs for making their businesses scalable and more efficient. They empower entrepreneurs to create a successful business by offering them various consultancy services about business modeling, operational excellence, IT strategy, and IT implementation.

Apply to Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub, or learn more ➜

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14. MORTAR

  • Location: Cincinnati

  • Industry: All Industries

  • Investment Size: Not Disclosed

  • Program: 15 Weeks

MORTAR aims to create diverse communities by providing entrepreneurs the access to resources and connections needed to start and grow a successful business. They run a 15-week program in which they create a business canvas for aspiring entrepreneurs and teach them about different shades of business management. They have an excellent team of mentors and alumni who guide and provide mentorship to entrepreneurs. They also provide co-working space and host brainstorming and fundraising sessions for them.

Apply to MORTAR, or learn more ➜

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15. Seed Strategy

  • Location: Cincinnati

  • Industry: All Industries

  • Investment Size: Not Disclosed

  • Program: Not Disclosed

Seed Strategy is a growth accelerator firm, which has designed its services and processes to maximize the growth of startups. They identify the goals and strategies of the business, set the direction for the brands, and uncover foundational knowledge. They give business insights to the growth-stage business firms and help them in creating new products and services. They optimize new concepts and research and help startup firms to step up the success ladder.

Apply to Seed Strategy, or learn more ➜

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meet the author
Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.