Accel (company)

Accel, formerly known as Accel Partners, is an American 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] India[3] and China (through a partnership with International Data Group (IDG-Accel)).[4]

For the acquired software company, see Accel Technologies.
Accel
TypePrivate Ownership
IndustryVenture capital
Founded1983
HeadquartersPalo Alto, California, U.S.
ProductsVenture capital, Growth capital
Websitewww.accel.com

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 requires "deep focus[7]" and a disciplined and informed approach to investing.[8]

In 2000, Accel entered a joint-venture with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts to form Accel-KKR a technology-focused private equity investment firm focused on control investments in middle-market companies.[9]

In 2001, Accel opened its London office as a separate fund, to invest in European technology companies,[10] focusing on Series A and Series B investments.[11] Its European investments include Avito (acquired by Naspers for $1.2 billion),[12] BlaBlaCar,[13] Deliveroo,[14] HopIn,[15] Spotify and Supercell (acquired by Tencent for $8.6 billion) and UiPath[16] among others.

In addition to Accel's continued investments in early-stage startups from the Accel early stage fund, the firm announced a $480 million growth fund in December 2008, focused on growth equity opportunities in information technology, the internet, digital media, mobile, networking, software, and services.[17]

In March 2016, Accel raised $2 billion, $500 million for an early stage venture fund and $1.5 billion for growth investments.[18] In April 2016, Accel raised a separate $500 million fund for investments in Europe and Israel.[19] In November 2016, Accel's India arm closed its fifth fund with $450 million, about two years after closing its fourth fund with $325 million.[20][21]

In May 2019 Accel closed a $575 million fund, which led to financing Series A of European and Israeli startups. The round was the largest in the region and the total amount of funds managed by Accel reached $3 billion.[22]

Portfolio

Accel is a venture capital firm that concentrates on the following technology sectors:[23][24]

  • Consumer
  • Infrastructure
  • Media
  • Mobile
  • SaaS
  • Security
  • Customer care services
  • Enterprise software
  • E-commerce

Investments

Accel works with seed, early and growth-stage investments.[25] Its seed and early stage investments include Cloudera, Dropbox, Dropcam, Facebook, Flipkart, Jet.com, Podium, Webflow[26] and Slack. The firm's growth capital investments focus on more developed companies that require a larger amount of capital to expand their business.[27] Examples include Atlassian, DJI and Qualtrics.[28]

Recent exits include:

Though the brand is one, there are at least 4 different, independent legal entities. In the US, it is Accel Management Co. Inc. based in Palo Alto, California. In London, there are Accel London Management Limited and Accel Partners Management LLP. There is also IDG-Accel China, legally IDG VC Management Ltd, located in Hong Kong.[49]

Geographies

Accel's US fund is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with offices in San Francisco, California.[50] Accel's European fund is headquartered in London, England and Accel's India fund is headquartered in Bangalore, India.[51]

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. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
  3. Russell, Jon (24 March 2015). "Accel Announces New $305 Million Investment Fund For India". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
  4. Mac, Ryan (March 19, 2014). "Accel Partners Raises New Funds Totaling Over $1 Billion As Facebook Investor Jim Breyer Reduces Role". Forbes.
  5. "Accel Team Jim Swartz". Archived from the original on 2016-01-24. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
  6. "A Venture Capitalist View of the Top 5 Entrepreneurial Energy Opportunities". Retrieved 2016-09-19.
  7. "Accel Partners, Venture Capital Fund: Andrew Braccia, Investments". www.fundingpost.com. Retrieved 2016-09-19.
  8. "Accel Boosts Team - PE Hub". 2013-07-24. Retrieved 2016-09-19.
  9. "History of Kohlberg, Kravis, Robert & Co".
  10. Kapner, Suzanne (2001-05-30). "U.S. Venture Capital Sees Treasure in Europe". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
  11. Dillet, Romain (11 April 2016). "Venture firm Accel just raised a new $500 million European fund". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
  12. "Naspers acquires Russia's Avito in $1.2 billion transaction". 23 October 2015. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
  13. Rao, Leena (16 January 2012). "Accel Leads $10M Round In European Airbnb For Car Ride-Sharing, BlablaCar". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
  14. "Deliveroo grabs $25M to bring its premium meal delivery service to more cities". VentureBeat. 29 January 2015. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
  15. "Hopin might be the fastest growth story of this era". TechCrunch. 7 January 2021. Retrieved 2021-01-24.
  16. "UiPath confirms $153M at $1.1B valuation from Accel, CapitalG and KP for its "software robots"". TechCrunch. 6 March 2018. Retrieved 2021-02-03.
  17. "Accel closes two funds totaling more than $1B". VentureBeat. 11 December 2008.
  18. "Accel Raises $2 Billion to Invest in Start-Ups". The New York Times. 15 March 2016.
  19. Dillet, Romain (11 April 2016). "Venture firm Accel just raised a new $500 million European fund". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-11.
  20. Loizos, Connie (30 November 2016). "Accel India closes its newest fund with $450 million — and in record time". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-12-03.
  21. "Accel Closes India Venture Fund". Fortune. Retrieved 2017-01-26.
  22. "Accel closes $575M fund to double down on European and Israeli Series A deals". TechCrunch. 15 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-05-16.
  23. "Accel". www.accel.com. Archived from the original on 2016-08-08. Retrieved 2016-08-12.
  24. "Accel Partners Teardown". 2016-02-05. Retrieved 2016-08-12.
  25. "Accel Partners Teardown". 2016-02-05. Retrieved 2016-08-19.
  26. "No-Code Website Builder Webflow Went From Near Bankruptcy To A $72 Million Series A Funding Round". Forbes. August 7, 2019.
  27. Loizos, Connie (15 March 2016). "Venture firm Accel Partners just raised $2B from its investors". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-19.
  28. Ha, Anthony (15 May 2012). "Qualtrics Raises $70M From Accel And Sequoia: "The Biggest Software Company You Haven't Heard Of"?". TechCrunch.
  29. "Arista Networks IPO values company at about $2.75 billion". Reuters. 5 June 2014. Retrieved 2014-06-05.
  30. "The Strategist". www.thestrategist.media. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  31. ChrisSpillane, Ilya Khrennikov Christopher Spillane (23 October 2015). "Naspers Takes Control of Russia's Avito in $1.2 Billion Purchase". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  32. Rao, Leena; Perez, Sarah; Lunden, Ingrid (26 September 2013). "EBay's PayPal Acquires Payments Gateway Braintree For $800M In Cash". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  33. Kendall, Marisa. "Cloudera, Silicon Valley's latest IPO, pops in first day trading". Mercury News. Retrieved 2017-04-28.
  34. "Argentine travel firm Despegar stock jumps on U.S. IPO". Reuters. 2017-09-20. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
  35. "Etsy prices its IPO at $16 per share, making it worth $1.78 billion". Business Insider. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  36. Raice, Shayndi; Das, Anupreeta; Letzing, John (2012-05-18). "Facebook Prices IPO at Record Value". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  37. Barinka, Alex. "Accel-Backed ForeScout Climbs After Raising $116 Million in IPO". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2017-10-27.
  38. Cao, Jing; King, Ian (16 June 2014). "SanDisk to Buy Fusion-io for $1.1 Billion". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  39. "Ritchie Bros. Completes Its Acquisition of IronPlanet" (Press release). Retrieved 2017-05-31.
  40. Selina_y_wang, Shannon Pettypiece spettypi Selina Wang. "Wal-Mart to Acquire Jet.com for $3.3 Billion to Fight Amazon". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  41. "Salesforce Buys Krux, the Data-Management Platform, for $700 Million". 3 October 2016. Retrieved 2016-10-03.
  42. "LinkedIn Enters Ed Tech with Lynda.com Acquisition – Its Largest Acquisition Ever". 2015-04-09. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  43. "It's Official: China's Wanda Acquires Legendary Entertainment for $3.5 Billion". The Hollywood Reporter. 11 January 2016. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  44. Forsell, Thomas (2017-09-28). "Angry Birds maker Rovio valued at $1 billion in IPO". Reuters. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  45. Osawa, Juro; Needleman, Sarah E. (2016-06-21). "Tencent Seals Deal to Buy 'Clash of Clans' Developer Supercell for $8.6 Billion". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  46. "'A sigh of relief' for Silicon Valley as consumer-Web stock Trulia soars in IPO". 20 September 2012. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  47. Christie, Les (2014-07-28). "Zillow buys Trulia for $3.5 billion". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
  48. "Tiger Global and Accel lead facility management startup Facilio's $6.4M Series A". TechCrunch. 5 December 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-05.
  49. "Accel - Legal".
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  51. "Accel". www.accel.com. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
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