Accel India raises $60 million India venture fund

14 November 2008

Accel India venture fund has closed its second round of funding, worth $60 million (the earlier round was $12 million) from institutional investors from North America, Europe and Asia.

The venture fund will invest the fund in 25 to 30 early stage companies over the next 3 to 4 years, said Prasanth Prakash, partner at Bangalore-based Accel India venture partners.

The fund, which was formed after Accel merged with Google-backed Erasmic in July 2008, is targeting opportunities in technology, technology-enabled services, internet, mobile, media, life sciences, consumer products and services, and other high-growth sectors of the Indian economy, the company said in a release.

Accel, with $4 billion under management and offices in Palo Alto and London, as well as in China through the IDG-Accel partnership, has attracted top tier institutional investors from North America, Europe and Asia.

Accel so far has extended help to 300 entrepreneurs worldwide, including the likes of comScore, Facebook, JBoss, Kayak, Macromedia, MetroPCS, Polycom, Realnetworks, Redback, Remedy, UUNet, Veritas and Walmart.com.

Accel will typically be the first institutional investor in a new venture, and will play an active role in supporting the management to shape the portfolio company's direction.