Accel Launches $650 Mn Seventh Fund For Indian Startups, Will Continue Its Focus On Early Stage Startups

Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Accel has raised $650 Mn in its commitments towards the seventh fund, the Accel India VII, aimed at funding startups in India and Southeast Asia. The company will use the said fund to continue investing in early-stage startups across India and neighbouring regions.

The company said, “We are still at the beginning of this journey and are more enthusiastic than ever to support the entrepreneurs and companies of tomorrow.”

The latest VC fund announcement takes the company’s total commitment in India and Southeast Asia to more than $2 Bn. Accel first arrived in India in 2005, starting with the Accel India Venture Capital Fund in 2008 worth $10 Mn.

Notably, Accel has funded some well-known Indian companies in their early stages. Flipkart and Freshworks are two of the biggest success stories under its portfolio, as Accel supported them from the Seed round and through every subsequent funding round. In Southeast Asia, the Accel team has backed companies such as Pluang, Axie Infinity, and Nansen.

Accel generally likes to be the first investor in a company. “In India and Southeast Asia we are the first institutional investor in over 85% of our investments, and 95% of our investments are Seed or Series A,” the company said. 

Accel India has been also among the early-stage investors in companies such as Acko, CultFit, Mensa, MindTickle, Swiggy, Urban Company, Vedantu, among others.

The VC fund had raised its last fund i.e. Accel India VI of $550 Mn in December 2019.

Accel India VII is significantly larger than its predecessor, clocking in at $650 Mn, and the company has continued to increase its India commitment significantly with every new fund.

It has always liked to invest in tech startups, and the latest fund will also aim to fund startups across multiple industries. 

In a statement, the company said, “We see this trend playing out not only in categories like financial services and ecommerce, but also across core sectors like agriculture, education, insurance, logistics, healthcare, real estate, and manufacturing.”

Last month, Accel India selected 14 startups as part of its first cohort of Atoms programme that was launched last year to make Pre-Seed funding in startups. These are all tech startups working in SaaS, healthtech, fintech, cryptocurrency, and Web 3.0, and will receive funding from Accel under the said programme.

Recently, Accel has funded Bengaluru-based neobank startup Niyo, leading the Series C funding round where Niyo raised $100 Mn. Along with this, the company also led the Seed funding for the San Francisco-based software startup, Testsigma, where the startup raised $4.6 Mn.

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