How does Ottawa’s Mercury Launch measure up to FounderFuel and GrowLab?

With the addition of Ottawa’s Mercury Launch last week, we now have three new startup accelerators across Canada. Mercury Launch joins Montreal’s FounderFuel and Vancouver’s GrowLab.

All three offer the funding and mentorship new startups need to succed, but how does each program compare?

The big difference is that Mercury Launch is open to ONLY Ottawa-based startups whereas both FounderFuel and GrowLab are accepting applications from entrepreneurs worldwide. Here’s the rest of the tale-of-the-tape:

Start date:

  • FounderFuel: August 15, 2011
  • GrowLab: August 15, 2011
  • Mercury Launch: September 5, 2011

Program duration:

  • FounderFuel: 3 months
  • GrowLab: 4 months (3 months in Vancouver; 1 month in San Francisco)
  • Mercury Launch: 3 months (plus one optional month in New York, San Francisco, or Summerview)

Accelerator Funding:

  • FounderFuel: Over $2 Million dollars committed to date
  • GrowLab: $2.5 Million
  • Mercury Launch: $2 Million +

Individual Investment size:

  • FounderFuel: Each team in the program receives a $10K investment, plus an additional $5K per co-founder in exchange for 6% equity in the company. As an example, a team of 3 will receive a total of $25K.
  • GrowLab: Up to $25,000 in exchange for 5-10% equity in the company. In addition to the $25K in seed funding, GrowLab has partnered with BDC to offer each company that successfully graduates from the program up to $150,000 in follow-on funding.
  • Mercury Launch: Up to $25,000 depending on need and situation for between 5-10% depending on the stage of the business and opportunity size.

Who’s Involved?

  • Founder Fuel: General Manager Ian Jeffrey and 85 experienced entrepreneurs, top executives, VCs, and Angels to join the team of mentors.
  • GrowLab: Managing Director Michael Tippett and founders Boris Wertz, Leonard Brody, Debbie Landa, and Jason Bailey.
  • Mercury Launch: Managing partners Scott Annan, Rob Woodbridge, Scott Lake; a loaded advisory board (to be announced next week), and over 25 mentors to date.

Deadline to apply:

  • FounderFuel: It was July 1st. Applications are currently closed.
  • GrowLab: It was June 15th but you can apply now for the Spring 2012 cohort.
  • Mercury Launch: August 20th.

Disclosure: GrowLabs’ Boris Wertz and his W Media Ventures is an investor in Techvibes Media Inc.