Accel Partners Closes $450 Mn Fund To Bet Big On Indian Startups

US- and Bengaluru-based venture capital firm Accel Partners has raised $450 Mn funding as part of its fifth India fund.

The fund will begin to deploy in early 2017 and will invest in sectors such as consumer Internet, enterprise software, financial technology, business-to-business and healthcare

Earlier, the company deployed its $305 Mn India Fund IV, which invested in startups like food-delivery venture Swiggy, local services app UrbanClap, and rental marketplace RentoMojo. To date, it has raised a total of $560 Mn in four previous funds.

As stated in a post on Medium by the firm, the new capital will be dedicated exclusively to invest in seed and early stage startups across one of the most vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems in the world (India). “The new fund will continue to help us partner with, invest in and nurture exciting companies founded by some of the most passionate and truly amazing entrepreneurs anywhere.”

In the past one year, Accel has doubled its seed stage investments from about $500K to $1-2 Mn.

Accel entered India in 2008 when it acquired Erasmic Venture Fund, and has since backed hundreds of companies like BookMyShow, BlackBuck, BlueStone, CommonFloor (Quikr acquisition), Flipkart, FreshDesk, Mitra Biotech, Myntra, Portea, Power2SME, PropTiger, Swiggy, TaxiForSure (Ola), UrbanClap and more.  As stated by Accel, more than 80% of its investments in India were started out as seed investments.

According to a company statement,

 “Today we believe there are more favourable tailwinds in the Indian ecosystem than ever before. Business-friendly government policies are contributing to strong long-term fundamentals. Talented entrepreneurs who can build world-class products for India and global markets alike are rising to the challenge of starting new businesses. The rapid adoption of mobile technology by both consumers and businesses is a fundamental enabler. All these positive trends are helping entrepreneurs to identify large opportunities and scale faster.”

In March, Accel US also announced it had raised around $2 Bn, split between a $500 Mn early-stage investing corpus and $1.5 Bn for later-stage growth investments.

Recently, Mumbai-based early stage venture capital firm Matrix Partners India raised an additional $110 Mn (INR 730 Cr) to top up its second fund. The firm had raised the additional corpus from its existing investors or limited partners who provide the capital invested by venture firms. With this, Matrix Partners India have a total corpus of $400 Mn in its second fund. Matrix Partners India had raised $300 Mn for its India-focused second fund in 2011. Its first India fund, of $150 Mn, was raised in 2006, and an additional $150 Mn was raised in 2007.

Other venture funds in India include Kalaari Capital, SAIF Partners and Nexus Venture Partners among others.