Global venture capital firm Accel has closed its eighth fund focused on India, raising a corpus of about $650 million (over Rs 5,500 crore) to back early-stage startups in India, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
It typically is the first institutional investor in startups and then later backs them in follow-on rounds.
The latest fund comes close to three years after the firm, which has been investing in India since 2008, raised a similar corpus for its seventh India fund in March 2022. Prior to that, it raised $550 million for its sixth vehicle in 2019, and $450 million for its fifth fund in 2016.
Last month, separately, the VC firm closed its global growth fund raising $1.35 billion, a smaller corpus ‘by design’.
The VC firm’s investment in India span across sectors such as next generation ecommerce, emerging software as a service (SaaS), consumer fintech, global business to business (B2B) marketplaces and digital health.
Accel, in India, has backed many companies such as Flipkart, Freshworks, Bizongo, Myntra, BookMyShow, BrowserStack, Infra.Market, Chargebee, Clevertap, Cure Fit, Musigma, Moneyview, Mensa Brands, and, Moglix among others. In 2024, a few of its portfolio companies such as Swiggy and Blackbuck listed on the stock market, allowing the firm to make partial exits, while a few others are eyeing listing in 2025.
While its peers such as Sequoia and Matrix have spun off their India units separately as ‘Peak XV’ and ‘Z47’, the VC firm hasn’t yet separated its India unit.
