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Accel (company)

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For the acquired software company, see Accel Technologies.
Accel
FormerlyAccel Partners
Company typePrivate
IndustryVenture capital
Founded1983; 41 years ago (1983)
HeadquartersPalo Alto, California, U.S.
ProductsVenture capital, Growth capital
Number of employees
300 (2024) Edit this on Wikidata
Websitewww.accel.com

Accel, formerly known as Accel Partners, is an American venture capital firm. Accel works with startups in seed, early and growth-stage investments. The company has offices in Palo Alto, California and San Francisco, California, with additional operating funds in London,[1][2] India[3] and China (through a partnership with International Data Group (IDG-Accel)).[4]

History

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In 1983, Accel was founded by Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz.[5] The co-founders developed the firm's "Prepared Mind" investment philosophy based on the Louis Pasteur quote "Chance favors the prepared mind.",[6] which requires "deep focus[7]" and a disciplined and informed approach to investing.[8]

In 2000, Accel entered a joint-venture with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts to form Accel-KKR, a technology-focused private equity investment firm focused on control investments in middle-market companies.[9]

In 2001, Accel opened its London office as a separate fund, to invest in European technology companies,[10] focusing on Series A and Series B investments.[11] Its European investments include Avito (acquired by Naspers for $1.2 billion),[12] BlaBlaCar,[13] Deliveroo,[14] HopIn,[15] Spotify and Supercell (acquired by Tencent for $8.6 billion) and UiPath[16] among others.

In addition to Accel's continued investments in early-stage startups from the Accel early stage fund, the firm announced a $480 million growth fund in December 2008, focused on growth equity opportunities in information technology, the internet, digital media, mobile, networking, software, and services.[17]

In March 2016, Accel raised $2 billion, $500 million for an early stage venture fund and $1.5 billion for growth investments.[18] In April 2016, Accel raised a separate $500 million fund for investments in Europe and Israel.[19] In November 2016, Accel's India arm closed its fifth fund with $450 million, about two years after closing its fourth fund with $325 million.[20][21]

In May 2019 Accel closed a $575 million fund, which led to financing Series A of European and Israeli startups. The round was the largest in the region and the total amount of funds managed by Accel reached $3 billion.[22]

Investments

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Accel focuses on enterprise/SaaS and consumer investments and works with seed, early, growth-stage companies worldwide.[23] The firm's growth capital investments focus on more developed companies that require a larger amount of capital to expand their business. Notable investments include:

Year Investment
2020s Bumble[24], Klaviyo[25], Linear[26], Synthesia[27] H Company[28], Vercel[29]
2010s 1Password[30], Atlassian[31], CrowdStrike[32], Deliveroo[33], Docusign[34] Dropcam[35], Fiverr[36] Frame.io[37], Freshworks[38] Jet.com[39], Lynda[40], Miro[41], Qualtrics[42], Scale AI[43], Segment[44], Spotify[45], Supercell[46] Squarespace[47], Swiggy[48], Tenable[49],UiPath[50] Venmo[51]
2000s Cloudera[52], Dropbox[53], Facebook[54], Flipkart (acquired by Walmart)[55], Groupon[56], Slack[57], Kayak[58]
1980s-1990s MetroPCS[59], UUNet[60], Polycom[61], RealNetworks[62]

Geographies

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Accel's US fund is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with offices in San Francisco, California.[63] Accel's European fund is headquartered in London, England and Accel's India fund is headquartered in Bangalore, India.[64]

References

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  1. ^ "Accel raises $500 million fund to double down on Series A and B rounds in Europe and Israel - Tech.eu". 11 April 2016. Retrieved 2016-09-12.
  2. ^ "Private Equity Week Wire for Tuesday 6/12 - PE HUB". PE HUB. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
  3. ^ Russell, Jon (24 March 2015). "Accel Announces New $305 Million Investment Fund For India". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
  4. ^ Mac, Ryan (March 19, 2014). "Accel Partners Raises New Funds Totaling Over $1 Billion As Facebook Investor Jim Breyer Reduces Role". Forbes.
  5. ^ "Accel Team Jim Swartz". Archived from the original on 2016-01-24. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
  6. ^ "A Venture Capitalist View of the Top 5 Entrepreneurial Energy Opportunities". Retrieved 2016-09-19.
  7. ^ "Accel Partners, Venture Capital Fund: Andrew Braccia, Investments". www.fundingpost.com. Retrieved 2016-09-19.
  8. ^ "Accel Boosts Team - PE Hub". 2013-07-24. Retrieved 2016-09-19.
  9. ^ "History of Kohlberg, Kravis, Robert & Co".
  10. ^ Kapner, Suzanne (2001-05-30). "U.S. Venture Capital Sees Treasure in Europe". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
  11. ^ Dillet, Romain (11 April 2016). "Venture firm Accel just raised a new $500 million European fund". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
  12. ^ "Naspers acquires Russia's Avito in $1.2 billion transaction". 23 October 2015. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
  13. ^ Rao, Leena (16 January 2012). "Accel Leads $10M Round In European Airbnb For Car Ride-Sharing, BlablaCar". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
  14. ^ "Deliveroo grabs $25M to bring its premium meal delivery service to more cities". VentureBeat. 29 January 2015. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
  15. ^ "Hopin might be the fastest growth story of this era". TechCrunch. 7 January 2021. Retrieved 2021-01-24.
  16. ^ "UiPath confirms $153M at $1.1B valuation from Accel, CapitalG and KP for its "software robots"". TechCrunch. 6 March 2018. Retrieved 2021-02-03.
  17. ^ "Accel closes two funds totaling more than $1B". VentureBeat. 11 December 2008.
  18. ^ "Accel Raises $2 Billion to Invest in Start-Ups". The New York Times. 15 March 2016.
  19. ^ Dillet, Romain (11 April 2016). "Venture firm Accel just raised a new $500 million European fund". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-11.
  20. ^ Loizos, Connie (30 November 2016). "Accel India closes its newest fund with $450 million — and in record time". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-12-03.
  21. ^ "Accel Closes India Venture Fund". Fortune. Retrieved 2017-01-26.
  22. ^ "Accel closes $575M fund to double down on European and Israeli Series A deals". TechCrunch. 15 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-05-16.
  23. ^ "Accel Partners Teardown". CB Insights. 2016-02-05.
  24. ^ Ross, Matican. "Bumble Sets IPO Pricing Range". The Information.
  25. ^ Miller, Ron (17 November 2020). "Marketing automation platform Klaviyo scores $200M Series C on $4.15B valuation". TechCrunch.
  26. ^ "Linear Raises $35M in Series B Funding". Finsmes. 17 September 2023.
  27. ^ Wiggers, Kyle (14 June 2023). "Synthesia secures $90M for AI that generates custom avatars". TechCrunch.,
  28. ^ Bergen, Mark (21 May 2024). "Holistic AI is now H, a new French startup with $220 Million Out of the Gate". Bloomberg.
  29. ^ Pimentel, Benjamin (21 April 2020). "The 29-year-old founder of Vercel used this pitch deck to raise $21 million from investors like Accel and GitHub's CEO to build faster websites". Business Insider.
  30. ^ Miller, Ron (14 November 2019). "Fourteen years after launching, 1Password takes a $200M Series A". TechCrunch.
  31. ^ Schonfeld, Erick (14 July 2010). "Product Management Software Company Atlassian Takes A Huge, $60 Million First Round of Funding From Accel". TechCrunch.
  32. ^ "CrowdStrike closes Series B with USD 30 million". Venture Capital Post. 9 September 2013.
  33. ^ Cook, James (29 January 2015). "Deliveroo, the Online Food Delivery Service Just for Restaurants, Is Raising £16 Million". Business Insider.
  34. ^ Ha, Anthony (12 July 2012). "E-Signature Company DocuSign Raises $47.5M Led By Kleiner Perkins, Mary Meeker Joins the Board". TechCrunch.
  35. ^ Rao, Leena (21 September 2011). "Accel Leads $6M Round in Video Monitoring And Cloud Streaming Service Dropcam". TechCrunch.
  36. ^ Rao, Leena (3 May 2012). "Task-Based Marketplace Fiverr Raises $15M From Accel and Bessemer". TechCrunch.
  37. ^ Ha, Anthony (5 October 2015). "Video Collaboration Startup Frame.io Raises $2.2M". TechCrunch.
  38. ^ Barik, Soumyarendra (22 September 2021). "Freshworks becomes first Indian Saas startup to list in US after $1 Bn IPO". entrackr.com.
  39. ^ Kerr, Ronny (16 May 2017). "When Jet.com was young". Vator News.
  40. ^ Empson, Rip (15 January 2013). "After 17 Years, Education platform Lynda.com Raises Its First Round of Funding, $103M from Accel & Spectrum". TechCrunch.
  41. ^ Hall, Christine (5 January 2022). "Visual Collaboration company Miro valued at $17.5B following $400M in new funding". TechCrunch.
  42. ^ Ha, Anthony (15 May 2012). "Qualtrics Raises $70M From Accel and Sequoia: The Biggest Software Company You haven't heard of". TechCrunch.
  43. ^ Etherington, Darrell (9 April 2021). "Scale CEO Alex Wang and Accel's Dan Levine explain why sometimes unconventional VC deals are best". TechCrunch.
  44. ^ "Segment Raises $15M in Series A Funding". Finsmes. 8 October 2014.
  45. ^ Constine, Josh (21 November 2013). "Technology Crossover Ventures Funds All of Spotify's $250M International Growth Round". TechCrunch.
  46. ^ Butcher, Mike (26 May 2011). "Supercell Raises $12m from Accel Partners to power social web games". TechCrunch.
  47. ^ "Squarespace Raises $38.5 Million From Accel, Index Ventures". TechCrunch. 13 July 2010.
  48. ^ Magee, Christine (9 June 2015). "Swiggy Scoops Up $16.5M to Reinvent Food Delivery in India". TechCrunch.
  49. ^ Ha, Anthony (5 September 2012). "Network Security Company Tenable Raises a $50M Series A From Accel". TechCrunch.
  50. ^ Sawers, Paul (18 September 2018). "Automation software platform UiPath raises $225 million from CapitalG, Sequoia, and Accel at $3 billion valuation". VentureBeat.
  51. ^ Lardinois, Frederic (16 August 2012). "Online Payments Service Braintree Acquires Social Payments Startup Venmo". TechCrunch.
  52. ^ "Cloudera Raises $5 Million Series A Round For Hadoop Commercialization". TechCrunch. 16 March 2009.
  53. ^ Kincaid, Jason (4 November 2009). "Dropbox Raised $6 Million Sequoia-Led Series A In October 2008". TechCrunch.
  54. ^ Mangalindan, JP (11 January 2011). "Timeline: Where Facebook got its funding". Fortune.
  55. ^ J, Anand (10 May 2018). "Accel Partners Reveals Why It Invested in Flipkart At A Time When It Had No Backers". VC Circle.
  56. ^ Arrington, Michael (2 December 2009). "Groupon Gets a Hefty $30 Million from Accel for Local Offers Service". TechCrunch.
  57. ^ Chapman, Lizette (21 June 2019). "This VC Firm Invested $200 Million in Slack. Now Its Stake Is Worth $4.6 Billion". Fortune.
  58. ^ Schaal, Dennis (22 September 2016). "Kaya's Co-Founder and the Secret of Travel Startup Success". Skift.
  59. ^ "MetroPCS Director's $13 Million Sale". Barron's. 21 September 2011.
  60. ^ Flynn, Laurie (5 February 1995). "Technology; Internet Server Takes a Big Step". New York Times.
  61. ^ "Picture this". Forbes. 11 March 1998.
  62. ^ "Accel Partners starts international fund". CNET. 2 January 2002.
  63. ^ "Accel". Accel. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
  64. ^ "Connect". Accel. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
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