Accel (company)

Last updated
Accel
FormerlyAccel Partners
Company type Private
Industry Venture capital
Founded1983;42 years ago (1983)
Headquarters Palo Alto, California, U.S.
Products
Number of employees
300 (2024)  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Website www.accel.com

Accel, formerly known as Accel Partners, is a global 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] and India. [3]

Contents

History

In 1983, Accel was founded by Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz. [4] The co-founders developed the firm's "prepared mind" investment philosophy based on the Louis Pasteur quote "chance favors the prepared mind", [5] which they say requires "deep focus" [6] and a disciplined and informed approach to investing. [7]

In 2005, Accel Partners under the leadership of Jim Breyer, invested $12.7 million in Facebook, valuing the company at $98 million. [8] This investment became one of the most lucrative in venture capital history with Accel’s stake increasing to $8 billion by 2012. [9]

Investments and fundraises

In May 2024, Accel raised a $650 million fund to invest in early-stage companies across Europe and Israel, with a focus on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. Fundraising was facilitated, in part, by the establishment of Accel's London office in 2000. [10]

In January 2025, Accel raised $650 million early stage fund for startups in India and South East Asia [11]

Accel focuses on enterprise, SaaS, and consumer investments and works with seed, early, growth-stage companies worldwide. [12] 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:

Notable investments
YearCompanies
2020s Bumble, [13] Klaviyo, [14] Linear, [15] Synthesia [16] H Company, [17] Vercel, [18] Tailscale, [19] Recurly [20]
2010s 1Password, [21] Atlassian, [22] CrowdStrike, [23] Deliveroo, [24] Docusign [25] Dropcam, [26] Fiverr [27] Frame.io, [28] Freshworks [29] Jet.com, [30] Lynda, [31] Miro, [32] Qualtrics, [33] Scale AI, [34] Segment, [35] Spotify, [36] Supercell [37] Squarespace, [38] Swiggy, [39] Tenable, [40] UiPath [41] Venmo [42]
2000s Cloudera, [43] Dropbox, [44] Facebook, [45] Flipkart (acquired by Walmart), [46] Groupon, [47] Slack, [48] Kayak [49]
1980s-1990s MetroPCS, [50] UUNet, [51] Polycom, [52] RealNetworks [53]

Geographies

Accel has offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco, California; [54] London, England; and Bangalore, India. [55]

In 2000, Accel entered a joint venture with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts to form Accel-KKR, an independently operated technology-focused private equity investment firm focused on control investments in middle-market companies. [56] Similarly, 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. [57] Both Accel-KKR and IDG-Accel now operate independently.

References

  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. 4 April 2016.
  3. ↑ Russell, Jon (24 March 2015). "Accel Announces New $305 Million Investment Fund For India". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
  4. ↑ "Accel Team Jim Swartz". Archived from the original on 2016-01-24. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
  5. ↑ "A Venture Capitalist View of the Top 5 Entrepreneurial Energy Opportunities" . Retrieved 2016-09-19.
  6. ↑ "Accel Partners, Venture Capital Fund: Andrew Braccia, Investments". www.fundingpost.com. Retrieved 2016-09-19.
  7. ↑ "Accel Boosts Team - PE Hub". 2013-07-24. Retrieved 2016-09-19.
  8. ↑ "Jim Breyer (via Accel Partners)". CNBC. 2012-05-22. Retrieved 2025-04-22.
  9. ↑ Levy, Ari (January 18, 2012). "Accel Facebook Bet Poised to Become Biggest Venture Profit: Tech". Bloomberg.
  10. ↑ Mukherjee, Supantha (2024-05-13). "VC firm Accel raises $650 mln to invest in AI, cybersecurity startups". Reuters. Retrieved 2025-07-07.
  11. ↑ "Accel raises $650 million early-stage fund for start-ups in India and Southeast Asia". January 6, 2025.
  12. ↑ "Accel Partners Teardown". CB Insights. 2016-02-05.
  13. ↑ Ross, Matican. "Bumble Sets IPO Pricing Range". The Information.
  14. ↑ Miller, Ron (17 November 2020). "Marketing automation platform Klaviyo scores $200M Series C on $4.15B valuation". TechCrunch.
  15. ↑ "Linear Raises $35M in Series B Funding". Finsmes. 17 September 2023.
  16. ↑ Wiggers, Kyle (14 June 2023). "Synthesia secures $90M for AI that generates custom avatars". TechCrunch.,
  17. ↑ Bergen, Mark (21 May 2024). "Holistic AI is now H, a new French startup with $220 Million Out of the Gate". Bloomberg.
  18. ↑ 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.
  19. ↑ Roof, Katie (8 April 2025). "Toronto's Tailscale Hits $1.5 Billion Valuation With New Funding". Bloomberg.
  20. ↑ Balogh, Shannen (12 August 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.
  21. ↑ Miller, Ron (14 November 2019). "Fourteen years after launching, 1Password takes a $200M Series A". TechCrunch.
  22. ↑ Schonfeld, Erick (14 July 2010). "Product Management Software Company Atlassian Takes A Huge, $60 Million First Round of Funding From Accel". TechCrunch.
  23. ↑ "CrowdStrike closes Series B with USD 30 million". Venture Capital Post. 9 September 2013.
  24. ↑ Cook, James (29 January 2015). "Deliveroo, the Online Food Delivery Service Just for Restaurants, Is Raising £16 Million". Business Insider.
  25. ↑ Ha, Anthony (12 July 2012). "E-Signature Company DocuSign Raises $47.5M Led By Kleiner Perkins, Mary Meeker Joins the Board". TechCrunch.
  26. ↑ Rao, Leena (21 September 2011). "Accel Leads $6M Round in Video Monitoring And Cloud Streaming Service Dropcam". TechCrunch.
  27. ↑ Rao, Leena (3 May 2012). "Task-Based Marketplace Fiverr Raises $15M From Accel and Bessemer". TechCrunch.
  28. ↑ Ha, Anthony (5 October 2015). "Video Collaboration Startup Frame.io Raises $2.2M". TechCrunch.
  29. ↑ Barik, Soumyarendra (22 September 2021). "Freshworks becomes first Indian Saas startup to list in US after $1 Bn IPO". entrackr.com.
  30. ↑ Kerr, Ronny (16 May 2017). "When Jet.com was young". Vator News.
  31. ↑ Empson, Rip (15 January 2013). "After 17 Years, Education platform Lynda.com Raises Its First Round of Funding, $103M from Accel & Spectrum". TechCrunch.
  32. ↑ Hall, Christine (5 January 2022). "Visual Collaboration company Miro valued at $17.5B following $400M in new funding". TechCrunch.
  33. ↑ Ha, Anthony (15 May 2012). "Qualtrics Raises $70M From Accel and Sequoia: The Biggest Software Company You haven't heard of". TechCrunch.
  34. ↑ Etherington, Darrell (9 April 2021). "Scale CEO Alex Wang and Accel's Dan Levine explain why sometimes unconventional VC deals are best". TechCrunch.
  35. ↑ "Segment Raises $15M in Series A Funding". Finsmes. 8 October 2014.
  36. ↑ Constine, Josh (21 November 2013). "Technology Crossover Ventures Funds All of Spotify's $250M International Growth Round". TechCrunch.
  37. ↑ Butcher, Mike (26 May 2011). "Supercell Raises $12m from Accel Partners to power social web games". TechCrunch.
  38. ↑ "Squarespace Raises $38.5 Million From Accel, Index Ventures". TechCrunch. 13 July 2010.
  39. ↑ Magee, Christine (9 June 2015). "Swiggy Scoops Up $16.5M to Reinvent Food Delivery in India". TechCrunch.
  40. ↑ Ha, Anthony (5 September 2012). "Network Security Company Tenable Raises a $50M Series A From Accel". TechCrunch.
  41. ↑ Sawers, Paul (18 September 2018). "Automation software platform UiPath raises $225 million from CapitalG, Sequoia, and Accel at $3 billion valuation". VentureBeat.
  42. ↑ Lardinois, Frederic (16 August 2012). "Online Payments Service Braintree Acquires Social Payments Startup Venmo". TechCrunch.
  43. ↑ "Cloudera Raises $5 Million Series A Round For Hadoop Commercialization". TechCrunch. 16 March 2009.
  44. ↑ Kincaid, Jason (4 November 2009). "Dropbox Raised $6 Million Sequoia-Led Series A In October 2008". TechCrunch.
  45. ↑ Mangalindan, JP (11 January 2011). "Timeline: Where Facebook got its funding". Fortune.
  46. ↑ J, Anand (10 May 2018). "Accel Partners Reveals Why It Invested in Flipkart At A Time When It Had No Backers". VC Circle.
  47. ↑ Arrington, Michael (2 December 2009). "Groupon Gets a Hefty $30 Million from Accel for Local Offers Service". TechCrunch.
  48. ↑ Chapman, Lizette (21 June 2019). "This VC Firm Invested $200 Million in Slack. Now Its Stake Is Worth $4.6 Billion". Fortune.
  49. ↑ Schaal, Dennis (22 September 2016). "Kaya's Co-Founder and the Secret of Travel Startup Success". Skift.
  50. ↑ "MetroPCS Director's $13 Million Sale". Barron's. 21 September 2011.
  51. ↑ Flynn, Laurie (5 February 1995). "Technology; Internet Server Takes a Big Step". New York Times.
  52. ↑ "Picture this". Forbes. 11 March 1998.
  53. ↑ "Accel Partners starts international fund". CNET. 2 January 2002.
  54. ↑ "Accel". Accel. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
  55. ↑ "Connect". Accel. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
  56. ↑ Dowd, Kevin (17 April 2017). "Accel-KKR dips into Europe for latest tech transaction". Pitchbook.
  57. ↑ Mac, Ryan (March 19, 2014). "Accel Partners Raises New Funds Totaling Over $1 Billion As Facebook Investor Jim Breyer Reduces Role". Forbes.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.