African Startup Accelerators: How University Partnerships Signal Venture Quality and Drive Funding Growth Amid Capital Scarcity

<i>Background.</i> African startups operate amid acute capital scarcity and fragmented institutions, which complicates credible quality revelation to investors. <i>Purpose.</i> Focusing on the <i>venture</i> as the unit of analysis, this study investigates how milestones pursued inside university-affiliated accelerators function as signals of venture quality under scarcity, and how entrepreneurial behaviors shape the clarity and credibility of those signals. <i>Design/methodology/approach.</i> We track 17 technology ventures across East- and West-African university accelerators over 185 venture-quarters, combining venture-level panel regressions, event-study analysis, and fuzzy-set QCA. Two composite measures—the Governance-Readiness Index and the Signal-Portfolio Index—capture internal capability building and externally legible signals. <i>Findings.</i> Ventures graduating from university-affiliated accelerators secured roughly three times more equity than matched non-accelerated peers, with heterogeneity explained by milestone attainment and the breadth/strength of signal portfolios. We articulate a signal–noise paradox: effectuation/bricolage behaviors enable survival and progress under constraint yet can appear ambiguous to investors, attenuating signal clarity unless paired with governance readiness and externally validated milestones. <i>Originality/value.</i> The paper elevates signaling theory as the primary lens for early-stage ventures in emerging-market contexts, treats effectuation/bricolage as behavioral mechanisms, and situates staged financing as process logic and triple-helix/institutional-voids as contextual moderators. In doing so, it refines entrepreneurial signaling theory for scarcity contexts and offers actionable diagnostics for accelerators and policymakers designing inclusive, quality-assuring programs.