Global venture capital firm Accel has raised $550 million for its ninth India-focused early-stage fund, per an announcement.
The new fund is part of a broader $3.5 billion global fundraising exercise across four vehicles. The capital will support Accel’s early-stage investment strategies across the US, Europe, Israel and India, while also providing additional capital for larger initial investments and follow-on rounds, the firm said on its website on Wednesday.
The latest vehicle is smaller than the firm’s eighth India fund ($650 million), and brings Accel’s total capital raised for India to $1.2 billion over an 18-month span. Accel said it has deliberately kept the corpus at this level as a significant portion of its previous fund remains available for deployment.
The firm is expected to begin deploying the new capital from next year, while continuing to invest from Fund VIII in the interim, according to a report in TechCrunch. The firm is particularly looking at startups applying AI to consumer products, enterprise software, and other industries, as well as opportunities in advanced manufacturing and deep technology.
Accel has built a strong and steadily expanding investment footprint in India, spanning early-stage startups and late-stage scale-ups. Its investments in India include Swiggy, Meesho, Zetwerk, Spinny, Urban Company, and Freshworks.
The firm typically invests at the seed and Series A stages, with its average early-stage cheque in the range of $3-4 million, said a moneycontrol.com report.
