Accel (company)
Venture capital firm
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Accel, formerly known as Accel Partners, is a global venture capital firm. The company has offices in Palo Alto, California and San Francisco, California, with additional offices in London,[1][2] and India.[3] The company's most notable investment was a $12.7 million investment in Facebook in May 2005 for 10% of the company, before the company had revenue.
 | |
| Formerly | Accel Partners |
|---|---|
| Company type | Private |
| Industry | Venture capital |
| Founded | 1983 |
| Headquarters | Palo Alto, California, U.S. |
| Products | Venture capital Growth capital |
Number of employees | 300 (2024)  |
| Website | www |
Accel invests in enterprise, SaaS, and consumer companies in seed, early, and growth-stage worldwide.[4]
History
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 they say requires "deep focus" and a disciplined and informed approach to investing.[7]
In 2000, Accel and Kohlberg 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% of Facebook, 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's initial public offering in 2012.[11]
Investments and fundraises
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 on artificial intelligence and computer 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]
| 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 by Walmart),[49] Groupon,[50] Slack,[51] Kayak[52] |
| 1980s-1990s | MetroPCS,[53] UUNet,[54] Polycom,[55] RealNetworks[56] |