After announcing its $650Mn eighth European fund in May 2024 – Accel, which is a backer for the likes of Flipkart, Swiggy, Urban Company, ACKO, and more – has now raised $650 million for its latest India-focused fund, as per a securities filing, first reported by The Information. This will be Accel’s eighth fund dedicated to India, following its seventh India-focused fund, which was also $650 million and closed in 2022.
Palo-Alto based Accel – which has been active in India since 2008 – is reportedly planning to allocate a significant portion of this newly raised fund to Indian startups in their pre-IPO rounds. The latest India fund will be deployed to double down on new and existing bets. In addition, non-metro markets could be the preferred target to engage a wider variety of entrepreneurs.
With this latest fund, the early-stage backer of Flipkart and Swiggy has brought its total commitments in India to nearly $3 billion. Meanwhile, earlier in December, Accel’s filing disclosed that it had raised $1.35 billion for its new growth fund, which will focus on investing in established startups.
The timing of this new fund becomes even more interesting as companies that Accel has invested in, like Swiggy and Blackbuck, achieved the milestone of being listed through IPOs last year. Notably, food and grocery delivery firm Swiggy’s ₹11,327 crore initial public offering (IPO) was the second largest in 2024. Not just that, but 5-6 more Indian companies in Accel’s portfolio are gearing up to go public in 2025.
In the meantime, while some major Silicon Valley investors like Sequoia and Matrix have decided to separate their India units, Accel is one that still has not chosen this path. Accel India’s portfolio also includes companies such as BookMyShow, BrowserStack, Freshworks, Spinny, FalconX, Zetwerk, Infra.Market, Moglix and others.
According to Tracxn data, Accel made 17 investments in Indian startups in 2023 and 51 in 2022. In 2024, the firm approximately made as many as 25 investments. Last year, Accel reportedly focused more on sectors like agri-tech, B2B, manufacturing, artificial intelligence (AI), software as a service (SaaS), and climate tech. Data also shows that Indian startups secured $30.4 billion in funding in 2024, a 6.5% drop from the $32.5 billion raised in 2023. Still, several companies achieved unicorn status last year, including Rapido, Ather, Perfios, Porter, and MoneyView. Quick commerce emerged as a rapidly growing sector with around 40 active companies. The list includes rising names – even in tier 2-3 markets – like Zepto, Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, Dunzo, and more.