Accel To Raise About $400 To $500 Mn In Its Fifth India-Focused Fund

Venture capital firm Accel Partners is all set to raise a $400 Mn to $500 Mn in its fifth India-focused fund, which is expected to close by the year-end, reported ET.

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

“Initial conversations about the new fund have already begun with limited partners, or LPs (investors in funds). The amount is yet to be finalised, but it will be larger than their previous fund size,” said a person privy to the information.

Accel entered India in 2008 when it acquired Erasmic Venture Fund, and has since backed hundreds of companies like BookMyShow, Freshdesk and Myntra. Besides, in 2009, it had also invested $1 Mn in ecommerce company Flipkart.

It is currently deploying its $305 Mn India Fund IV, which has invested in startups like food-delivery venture Swiggy, local services app UrbanClap, and rental marketplace RentoMojo.

In March, Accel US 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 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.

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