Accel Launches $650m VC Fund for India, Southeast Asia

Venture capital (VC) firm Accel’s India office has launched a $650 million fund to invest in India and Southeast Asia.

This is the seventh fund from Accel, taking their total commitments to $2 billion.

The company has invested in Indian startups that include Acko, Blackbuck, BrowserStack, Chargebee, CultFit, FalconX, Infra.Market, Mensa, MindTickle, Moglix, Spinny, Swiggy, UrbanCompany, Vedantu, Zetwerk and Zenoti.

Accel said it is the first institutional investor in 87% of its investments, and 95% of its investments are either seed or series A funding.

Established in 2005, Accel has sought to partner with founders “at their very early stage, supporting them as they create large and enduring companies”, Prashanth Prakash, a partner at Accel, said.

Flipkart and Freshworks are two early Accel investments in India that have gone on to become iconic companies.

“We study a particular technology shift, develop a thesis, and when we come across a startup that is poised to succeed, we are prepared to partner quickly,” Prakash said.

The VC firm said its focus on Southeast Asia comes after 25 startups from six Southeast Asian countries became unicorns in 2021, with a combined valuation at $55.4 billion.

“This is a definite marker of potential as only 21 companies had reached unicorn status from the region between 2013 and 2020,” said Prakash.

Accel backed startups including the investment app Pluang, payment gateway startup Xendit, NFT-based online video game Axie Infinity, blockchain analytics platform Nansen and quick delivery commerce startup Astro.

“Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem is thriving and very interesting innovation is being done here,” Accel partner Prayank Swaroop said.

“The ideas are very unique to Southeast Asia, but the startups have global ambitions.”

Swaroop said Accel also places a significant emphasis on mentorship for founders, which they undertake through programmes such as SeedToScale and Atoms.

George Russell

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George Russell

George Russell is a freelance writer and editor based in Hong Kong who has lived in Asia since 1996. His work has been published in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, New York Post, Variety, Forbes and the South China Morning Post.