Venture capital firm
Accel , formerly known asAccel Partners , is a globalventure capital firm. The company has offices inPalo Alto, California andSan Francisco, California , with additional offices inLondon ,[ 1] [ 2] and India.[ 3] The company's most notable investment was a $12.7 million investment inFacebook in May 2005 for 10% of the company, before the company had revenue.
Accel invests in enterprise,SaaS , and consumer companies in seed, early, and growth-stage worldwide.[ 4]
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 theLouis Pasteur quote "chance favors the prepared mind",[ 6] which they say requires "deep focus" and a disciplined and informed approach to investing.[ 7]
In 2000, Accel andKohlberg Kravis Roberts formed Accel-KKR, an independently operated technology-focused private equity investment firm focused on control investments in middle-market companies.[ 8] In the same year, Accel partnered with IDG Capital to create IDG-Accel, a joint venture focusing on early-stage and growth investments in the Chinese market.[ 9]
In May 2005, Accel, under the leadership of Jim Breyer, invested $12.7 million for 10% ofFacebook , before the company had revenue.[ 10] This investment became one of the most lucrative in venture capital history and was worth $6.6 billion at the time of the company'sinitial public offering in 2012.[ 11]
Investments and fundraises [ edit ] In December 2019, the company raised $550 million in its 6th investment fund focused on India.[ 12]
In May 2024, Accel raised a $650 million fund to invest in early-stage companies across Europe and Israel, with a focus onartificial intelligence andcomputer security . Fundraising was facilitated, in part, by the establishment of Accel's London office in 2000.[ 13]
In January 2025, Accel raised a $650 million early stage fund for startups in India and South East Asia. This was the firm's 8th fund focused on India.[ 14]
Notable investments Year Companies 2020s Bumble ,[ 15] Klaviyo ,[ 16] Linear,[ 17] Synthesia ,[ 18] H Company ,[ 19] Vercel ,[ 20] Tailscale ,[ 21] Recurly,[ 22] Laravel ,[ 23] Perplexity [ 24] 2010s 1Password ,[ 25] Atlassian ,[ 26] CrowdStrike ,[ 27] Deliveroo ,[ 28] Docusign ,[ 29] Dropcam ,[ 30] Fiverr ,[ 31] Frame.io ,[ 32] Freshworks [ 33] Jet.com ,[ 34] Lynda ,[ 35] Miro ,[ 36] Qualtrics ,[ 37] Scale AI ,[ 38] Spotify ,[ 39] Supercell ,[ 40] Squarespace ,[ 41] Swiggy ,[ 42] Tenable ,[ 43] UiPath ,[ 44] Venmo [ 45] 2000s Cloudera ,[ 46] Dropbox ,[ 47] Facebook ,[ 48] Flipkart (acquired byWalmart ),[ 49] Groupon ,[ 50] Slack ,[ 51] Kayak [ 52] 1980s-1990s MetroPCS ,[ 53] UUNet ,[ 54] Polycom ,[ 55] RealNetworks [ 56]
^ "Accel raises $500 million fund to double down on Series A and B rounds in Europe and Israel" .Tech.eu . April 11, 2016.^ "Private Equity Week Wire for Tuesday 6/12" .PE HUB . April 4, 2016.^ Russell, Jon (March 24, 2015)."Accel Announces New $305 Million Investment Fund For India" .TechCrunch . ^ "Accel Partners Teardown" .CB Insights . February 5, 2016.^ "Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship" .Carnegie Mellon University .^ King, Steve (August 18, 2009)."A Venture Capitalist View of the Top 5 Entrepreneurial Energy Opportunities" .U.S. News & World Report . ^ Browne, Ryan (May 13, 2024)."Early Facebook investor Accel raises $650 million fund to back European and Israeli startups" .CNBC . ^ Dowd, Kevin (April 17, 2017)."Accel-KKR dips into Europe for latest tech transaction" .Pitchbook . ^ Mac, Ryan (March 19, 2014)."Accel Partners Raises New Funds Totaling Over $1 Billion As Facebook Investor Jim Breyer Reduces Role" .Forbes . ^ "Jim Breyer (via Accel Partners)" .CNBC . May 22, 2012.^ Levy, Ari (January 18, 2012)."Accel Facebook Bet Poised to Become Biggest Venture Profit: Tech" .Bloomberg News . ^ Singh, Manish (December 2, 2019)."Accel closes new $550M fund for India" .TechCrunch . ^ Mukherjee, Supantha (May 13, 2024)."VC firm Accel raises $650 mln to invest in AI, cybersecurity startups" .Reuters . ^ "Accel raises $650 million early-stage fund for start-ups in India and Southeast Asia" .Business Line . January 6, 2025.^ "Priyanka Chopra-backed Bumble dating app attains valuation of $14 billion on market debut" .Mint . February 12, 2021.^ Miller, Ron (November 17, 2020)."Marketing automation platform Klaviyo scores $200M Series C on $4.15B valuation" .TechCrunch . ^ "Linear Raises $35M in Series B Funding" .Finsmes . September 17, 2023.^ Wiggers, Kyle (June 14, 2023)."Synthesia secures $90M for AI that generates custom avatars" .TechCrunch . ,^ Bergen, Mark (May 21, 2024)."Holistic AI is now H, a new French startup with $220 Million Out of the Gate" .Bloomberg News . ^ Pimentel, Benjamin (April 21, 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 . ^ Roof, Katie (April 8, 2025)."Toronto's Tailscale Hits $1.5 Billion Valuation With New Funding" .Bloomberg News . ^ Balogh, Shannen (August 12, 2020)."A fintech that helps Twitch, Showtime, and CBS manage their subscriptions is eyeing international growth after nabbing a big investment from Accel-KKR" .Business Insider . ^ "Accel invests $57M into Laravel Products & Open-Source Framework" .Laravel . September 5, 2024.^ Who Owns Perplexity AI Company? ,Canvas Business Model , July 12, 2025.^ Miller, Ron (November 14, 2019)."Fourteen years after launching, 1Password takes a $200M Series A" . ^ Schonfeld, Erick (July 14, 2010)."Product Management Software Company Atlassian Takes A Huge, $60 Million First Round of Funding From Accel" .TechCrunch . ^ "CrowdStrike closes Series B with USD 30 million" .Venture Capital Post . September 9, 2013.^ Cook, James (January 29, 2015)."Deliveroo, the Online Food Delivery Service Just for Restaurants, Is Raising £16 Million" .Business Insider . ^ Ha, Anthony (July 12, 2012)."E-Signature Company DocuSign Raises $47.5M Led By Kleiner Perkins, Mary Meeker Joins the Board" .TechCrunch . ^ Rao, Leena (September 21, 2011)."Accel Leads $6M Round in Video Monitoring And Cloud Streaming Service Dropcam" .TechCrunch . ^ Rao, Leena (May 3, 2012)."Task-Based Marketplace Fiverr Raises $15M From Accel and Bessemer" .TechCrunch . ^ Ha, Anthony (October 5, 2015)."Video Collaboration Startup Frame.io Raises $2.2M" .TechCrunch . ^ Barik, Soumyarendra (September 22, 2021)."Freshworks becomes first Indian Saas startup to list in US after $1 Bn IPO" .entrackr.com . ^ Kerr, Ronny (May 16, 2017)."When Jet.com was young" .Vator News . ^ Empson, Rip (January 15, 2013)."After 17 Years, Education platform Lynda.com Raises Its First Round of Funding, $103M from Accel & Spectrum" .TechCrunch . ^ Hall, Christine (January 5, 2022)."Visual Collaboration company Miro valued at $17.5B following $400M in new funding" .TechCrunch . ^ Ha, Anthony (May 15, 2012)."Qualtrics Raises $70M From Accel and Sequoia: The Biggest Software Company You haven't heard of" .TechCrunch . ^ Etherington, Darrell (April 9, 2021)."Scale CEO Alex Wang and Accel's Dan Levine explain why sometimes unconventional VC deals are best" .TechCrunch . ^ Constine, Josh (November 21, 2013)."Technology Crossover Ventures Funds All of Spotify's $250M International Growth Round" .TechCrunch . ^ Butcher, Mike (May 26, 2011)."Supercell Raises $12m from Accel Partners to power social web games" .TechCrunch . ^ "Squarespace Raises $38.5 Million From Accel, Index Ventures" .TechCrunch . July 13, 2010.^ Magee, Christine (June 9, 2015)."Swiggy Scoops Up $16.5M to Reinvent Food Delivery in India" .TechCrunch . ^ Ha, Anthony (September 5, 2012)."Network Security Company Tenable Raises a $50M Series A From Accel" .TechCrunch . ^ Sawers, Paul (September 18, 2018)."Automation software platform UiPath raises $225 million from CapitalG, Sequoia, and Accel at $3 billion valuation" .VentureBeat . ^ Lardinois, Frederic (August 16, 2012)."Online Payments Service Braintree Acquires Social Payments Startup Venmo" .TechCrunch . ^ "Cloudera Raises $5 Million Series A Round For Hadoop Commercialization" .TechCrunch . March 16, 2009.^ Kincaid, Jason (November 4, 2009)."Dropbox Raised $6 Million Sequoia-Led Series A In October 2008" .TechCrunch . ^ Mangalindan, JP (January 11, 2011)."Timeline: Where Facebook got its funding" .Fortune . ^ J, Anand (May 10, 2018)."Accel Partners Reveals Why It Invested in Flipkart At A Time When It Had No Backers" .VC Circle . ^ Arrington, Michael (December 2, 2009)."Groupon Gets a Hefty $30 Million from Accel for Local Offers Service" .TechCrunch .^ Chapman, Lizette (June 21, 2019)."This VC Firm Invested $200 Million in Slack. Now Its Stake Is Worth $4.6 Billion" .Fortune . ^ Schaal, Dennis (September 22, 2016)."Kaya's Co-Founder and the Secret of Travel Startup Success" .Skift . ^ "MetroPCS Director's $13 Million Sale" .Barron's . September 21, 2011.^ Flynn, Laurie (February 5, 1995)."Technology; Internet Server Takes a Big Step" .New York Times . ^ "Picture this" .Forbes . March 11, 1998.^ "Accel Partners starts international fund" .CNET . June 13, 2001.
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