Accel (company) explained

Accel
Former Name:Accel Partners
Type:Private
Location:Palo Alto, California, U.S.
Industry:Venture capital
Products:Venture capital, Growth capital
Homepage:www.accel.com

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]

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]

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:

acquired by Softbank for $5.5 billion in 2015 and acquired by Tencent for $8.6 billion in 2016[45]

Legal entities

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]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Accel raises $500 million fund to double down on Series A and B rounds in Europe and Israel - Tech.eu. 11 April 2016 . 2016-09-12.
  2. Web site: Private Equity Week Wire for Tuesday 6/12 - PE HUB. PE HUB. 2016-03-04.
  3. Web site: Accel Announces New $305 Million Investment Fund For India. Russell . Jon. TechCrunch. 24 March 2015 . 2016-03-04.
  4. News: Accel Partners Raises New Funds Totaling Over $1 Billion As Facebook Investor Jim Breyer Reduces Role. Ryan. Mac. March 19, 2014. Forbes.
  5. Web site: Accel Team Jim Swartz . 2016-01-01 . 2016-01-24 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160124193352/http://www.accel.com/team/emeritus/all/jim-swartz . dead .
  6. Web site: A Venture Capitalist View of the Top 5 Entrepreneurial Energy Opportunities. 2016-09-19.
  7. Web site: Accel Partners, Venture Capital Fund: Andrew Braccia, Investments. www.fundingpost.com. 2016-09-19.
  8. Web site: Accel Boosts Team - PE Hub. 2013-07-24. 2016-09-19.
  9. Web site: History of Kohlberg, Kravis, Robert & Co..
  10. News: U.S. Venture Capital Sees Treasure in Europe. Kapner. Suzanne. 2001-05-30. The New York Times. 0362-4331. 2016-08-23.
  11. Web site: Venture firm Accel just raised a new $500 million European fund. Dillet. Romain. TechCrunch. 11 April 2016 . 2016-08-23.
  12. Web site: Naspers acquires Russia's Avito in $1.2 billion transaction. 23 October 2015 . 2016-08-23.
  13. Web site: Accel Leads $10M Round In European Airbnb For Car Ride-Sharing, BlablaCar. Rao. Leena. TechCrunch. 16 January 2012 . 2016-08-23.
  14. Web site: Deliveroo grabs $25M to bring its premium meal delivery service to more cities. VentureBeat. 29 January 2015. 2016-08-23.
  15. Web site: Hopin might be the fastest growth story of this era. 2021-01-24. TechCrunch. 7 January 2021 . en-US.
  16. Web site: UiPath confirms $153M at $1.1B valuation from Accel, CapitalG and KP for its "software robots". 2021-02-03. TechCrunch. 6 March 2018 . en-US.
  17. Web site: Accel closes two funds totaling more than $1B. 11 December 2008 . VentureBeat.
  18. News: Accel Raises $2 Billion to Invest in Start-Ups. The New York Times. 15 March 2016.
  19. Web site: Venture firm Accel just raised a new $500 million European fund. Dillet. Romain. TechCrunch. 11 April 2016 . 2016-08-11.
  20. Web site: Accel India closes its newest fund with $450 million — and in record time. Loizos. Connie. TechCrunch. 30 November 2016 . 2016-12-03.
  21. Web site: Accel Closes India Venture Fund. Fortune. 2017-01-26.
  22. Web site: Accel closes $575M fund to double down on European and Israeli Series A deals. TechCrunch. 15 May 2019 . en-US. 2019-05-16.
  23. Web site: Accel. Accel. 2016-08-12. https://web.archive.org/web/20160808113758/http://www.accel.com/companies/see-all. 2016-08-08. dead.
  24. Web site: Accel Partners Teardown. 2016-02-05. 2016-08-12.
  25. Web site: Accel Partners Teardown. 2016-02-05. 2016-08-19.
  26. News: No-Code Website Builder Webflow Went From Near Bankruptcy To A $72 Million Series A Funding Round . Forbes . August 7, 2019.
  27. Web site: Venture firm Accel Partners just raised $2B from its investors. Loizos. Connie. TechCrunch. 15 March 2016 . 2016-08-19.
  28. News: Ha . Anthony . Qualtrics Raises $70M From Accel And Sequoia: "The Biggest Software Company You Haven't Heard Of"? . TechCrunch . 15 May 2012 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20211205052750/https://techcrunch.com/2012/05/15/qualtrics-raises-70m-accel-sequoia/ . Dec 5, 2021 .
  29. News: Arista Networks IPO values company at about $2.75 billion. Avik . Das . Reuters. 5 June 2014. 2014-06-05.
  30. Web site: Top 5 of Successful High-Tech IPOs in 2015 . 10th of December, Australian company Atlassian raised $ 462 million, posting 22 million shares at $ 21 on the NASDAQ. Thus, the company was valued at $ 4.4 billion. . December 25, 2015 . The Strategist . 2016-08-18.
  31. News: Naspers Takes Control of Russia's Avito in $1.2 Billion Purchase. subscription . Chris . Spillane. Ilya . Khrennikov . Bloomberg. 23 October 2015 . 2016-09-06 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20160925064342/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-23/naspers-takes-control-of-russia-s-avito-in-1-2-billion-purchase . Sep 25, 2016 .
  32. Web site: EBay's PayPal Acquires Payments Gateway Braintree For $800M In Cash. Rao. Leena. Perez. Sarah. TechCrunch. 2016-09-06. Lunden. Ingrid. 26 September 2013 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20160925121931/https://techcrunch.com/2013/09/26/paypal-acquires-payments-gateway-braintree-for-800m-in-cash/ . Sep 25, 2016 .
  33. News: Cloudera, Silicon Valley's latest IPO, pops in first day trading. April 28, 2017 . But some of the excitement that performance should have caused was tempered because Cloudera ended the day worth about $2.3 billion — a far cry from the $4.1 billion valuation it last received as a private company. . Kendall. Marisa. Mercury News. 2017-04-28.
  34. News: Argentine travel firm Despegar stock jumps on U.S. IPO. Nikhil . Subba . Dion . Rabouin . Sai Sachin . Ravikumar . Rosalba . O'Brien . 2017-09-20. Reuters. 2017-09-20.
  35. Web site: Etsy prices its IPO at $16 per share, making it worth $1.78 billion. Jillian . D'Onfro . Apr 15, 2015 . . 2016-08-18.
  36. News: Facebook Prices IPO at Record Value. At $38 a share, Facebook is valued at $104 billion, the biggest-ever valuation by an American company at the time of its offering. . subscription . Raice. Shayndi. 2012-05-18. Das. Anupreeta. Wall Street Journal. 0099-9660. Letzing. John. 2016-08-18 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20160826170530/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303448404577409923406193162 . Aug 26, 2016 .
  37. News: Accel-Backed ForeScout Climbs After Raising $116 Million in IPO. subscription . October 26, 2017 . Barinka. Alex. Bloomberg. 2017-10-27 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20171028145218/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-27/accel-backed-forescout-raises-116-million-in-cybersecurity-ipo . Oct 28, 2017 .
  38. News: SanDisk to Buy Fusion-io for $1.1 Billion. subscription . Cao. Jing. King. Ian. Bloomberg. 16 June 2014 . 2016-09-06 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20160911200334/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-06-16/sandisk-to-buy-fusion-io-in-deal-valued-at-about-1-1-billion . Sep 11, 2016 .
  39. Ritchie Bros. Completes Its Acquisition of IronPlanet, Growing Digital Presence and Offering Unprecedented Choice to Customers . Ritchie Bros. acquired IronPlanet for approximately $758.5 million, subject to customary closing adjustments. . May 31, 2017 . PRNewswire . 2017-05-31.
  40. Web site: Wal-Mart to Acquire Jet.com for $3.3 Billion to Fight Amazon. Selina_y_wang. Shannon Pettypiece spettypi Selina Wang. Bloomberg.com. 2016-08-18.
  41. Web site: Salesforce Buys Krux, the Data-Management Platform, for $700 Million. 3 October 2016. 2016-10-03.
  42. Web site: LinkedIn Enters Ed Tech with Lynda.com Acquisition – Its Largest Acquisition Ever. 2015-04-09. 2016-08-18.
  43. Web site: It's Official: China's Wanda Acquires Legendary Entertainment for $3.5 Billion. . 11 January 2016. 2016-08-18.
  44. News: Angry Birds maker Rovio valued at $1 billion in IPO. Forsell. Thomas. 2017-09-28. Reuters. 2017-09-28.
  45. News: Tencent Seals Deal to Buy 'Clash of Clans' Developer Supercell for $8.6 Billion. Osawa. Juro. 2016-06-21. Needleman. Sarah E.. Wall Street Journal. 0099-9660. 2016-08-18.
  46. Web site: 'A sigh of relief' for Silicon Valley as consumer-Web stock Trulia soars in IPO. 20 September 2012. 2016-09-06.
  47. Web site: Zillow buys Trulia for $3.5 billion. Christie. Les. 2014-07-28. CNNMoney. 2016-09-06.
  48. Web site: Tiger Global and Accel lead facility management startup Facilio's $6.4M Series A. TechCrunch. 5 December 2018 . 2018-12-05.
  49. Web site: Accel - Legal.
  50. Web site: Accel. Accel. 2016-09-15.
  51. Web site: Connect . Accel. 2016-09-15.

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