Accel Partners
| |
Private Ownership | |
Industry | Venture capital |
Founded | 1983 |
Headquarters | Palo Alto, California, U.S. |
Products | Venture capital, Growth capital |
Website | 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]
Accel has funded technology companies including Facebook,[5] Slack,[6] Dropbox,[7] Atlassian,[8] Flipkart,[9] Supercell,[10] Spotify,[11] Etsy,[12] Braintree/Venmo,[13] Vox Media,[14] Lynda.com,[15] Qualtrics,[16] DJI,[17] Cloudera,[18] Jet.com[19], GoFundMe,[20] Vectra Networks Inc.[21] and BrowserStack[22].
History
In 1983, Accel was founded by Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz.[23] The co-founders developed the firm's "Prepared Mind" investment philosophy based on the Louis Pasteur quote "Chance favors the prepared mind.",[24] which requires "deep focus[25]" and a disciplined and informed approach to investing.[26]
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.[27]
In 2001, Accel opened its London office as a separate fund, to invest in European technology companies,[28] focusing on Series A and Series B investments.[29] Its European investments include Avito (acquired by Naspers for $1.2 billion),[30] BlaBlaCar,[31] Deliveroo,[32] Spotify and Supercell (acquired by Tencent for $8.6 billion), 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.[33]
In March 2016, Accel raised $2 billion, $500 million for an early stage venture fund and $1.5 billion for growth investments.[34] In April 2016, Accel raised a separate $500 million fund for investments in Europe and Israel.[35] 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.[36][37]
Portfolio
Accel is a venture capital firm that concentrates on the following technology sectors:[38][39]
- Consumer
- Infrastructure
- Media
- Mobile
- SaaS
- Security
- Customer care services
Investments
Accel works with seed, early and growth-stage investments.[40] Its seed and early stage investments include Cloudera, Dropbox, Dropcam, Facebook, Flipkart, Jet.com and Slack. The firm’s growth capital investments focus on more developed companies that require a larger amount of capital to expand their business.[41] Examples include Atlassian, DJI and Qualtrics.
Recent exits include:
- Arista Networks: IPO valuation of $2.7 billion in 2014[42]
- Atlassian: IPO valuation of $4.4 billion in 2015[43]
- Avito: acquired by Naspers for $1.2 billion in 2015[44]
- Braintree: acquired by PayPal for $800 million in 2013[45]
- Cloudera: IPO valuation of $2.3 billion in 2017[46]
- Despegar: IPO valuation of $1.97 billion in 2017[47]
- Etsy: IPO valuation of $1.78 billion in 2015[48]
- Facebook: IPO valuation of $104 billion in 2012[49]
- ForeScout: IPO valuation of $935+ million in 2017[50]
- Fusion-io: acquired by Sandisk for $1.1 billion in 2014[51]
- Iron Planet: acquired by Ritchie Bros. for approximately $758.5 million in 2017[52]
- Jet: acquired by Walmart for $3.3 billion in 2016[53]
- Krux: acquired by Salesforce for $700 million in 2016[54]
- Lynda.com: acquired by LinkedIn at a $1.5 billion valuation in 2015[55]
- Legendary Pictures: acquired by Wanda Group for $3.5 billion in 2016[56]
- Rovio: IPO valuation of $1 billion in 2017[57]
- Supercell: acquired by Softbank for $5.5 billion in 2015 and acquired by Tencent for $8.6 billion in 2016[58]
- Trulia: IPO valuation of $448 million[59] and acquired by Zillow for $3.5 billion in 2014[60]
Geographies
Accel's US fund is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with offices in San Francisco, California.[61]Accel's European fund is headquartered in London, England and Accel's India fund is headquartered in Bangalore, India.[62] In addition to the U.S., Accel has investments across in France,[63] Germany,[64] Israel,[65] Australia,[66] New Zealand,[67] Brazil,[68] Canada,[69] China,[70] Finland, India, Switzerland[71] and more.
References
- ↑ "Accel raises $500 million fund to double down on Series A and B rounds in Europe and Israel - Tech.eu". Retrieved 2016-09-12.
- ↑ "Private Equity Week Wire for Tuesday 6/12 - PE HUB". PE HUB. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
- ↑ Russell, Jon. "Accel Announces New $305 Million Investment Fund For India". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
- ↑ Mac, Ryan (March 19, 2014). "Accel Partners Raises New Funds Totaling Over $1 Billion As Facebook Investor Jim Breyer Reduces Role". Forbes.
- ↑ Levy, Ari. "Accel Facebook Bet Poised to Become Biggest Venture Profit: Tech". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2016-08-15.
- ↑ Loizos, Connie. "Andrew Braccia's Big Bet on Slack". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-15.
- ↑ "Dropbox - Dropbox Raises $250 Million in Series B Funding". Dropbox. Retrieved 2016-08-15.
- ↑ Tam, Pui-Wing. "Accel Invests $60 Million in Atlassian". Retrieved 2016-08-15.
- ↑ "Flipkart raises $150m from Accel partners and Tiger Global at $850 million valuation". 2012-01-31. Retrieved 2016-08-15.
- ↑ "Supercell is Accel's fastest growing company ever. (And it has a ball pit)". Pando. 2012-11-28. Retrieved 2016-08-15.
- ↑ "SPOTIFY: Now It's A $1 Billion Company". Retrieved 2016-08-15.
- ↑ Schonfeld, Erick. "Etsy Raises $27 Million; Accel's Jim Breyer Joins Board". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-15.
- ↑ "Mobile Payments Startup Venmo Acquired by Braintree". 2012-08-16. Retrieved 2016-08-15.
- ↑ Eldon, Eric. "Why Accel Is Leading A $40M Round In Vox Media, A Digital Content Company (!)". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-15.
- ↑ Empson, Rip. "After 17 Years, Education Platform Lynda.com Raises Its First Round Of Funding, $103M From Accel & Spectrum". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-15.
- ↑ Ha, Anthony. "Qualtrics Raises $70M From Accel And Sequoia: "The Biggest Software Company You Haven't Heard Of"?". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-15.
- ↑ Reuters (2015-05-06). "Chinese Drone Maker DJI Gets $75 Million From Accel Partners". Recode. Retrieved 2016-08-15.
- ↑ Wauters, Robin. "Cloudera Raises $5 Million Series A Round For Hadoop Commercialization". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-15.
- ↑ "The Man Who Knows Amazon's Brutal Tactics Better Than Anyone Just Sealed $80 Million In Funding For His New Company". Retrieved 2016-08-15.
- ↑ "GoFundMe Gets Undisclosed Funding Led by Accel Partners, TCV | Xconomy". 2015-06-24. Retrieved 2016-08-15.
- ↑ "Vectra raises $36 million for its AI cybersecurity technology". 2018-02-21. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
- ↑ "BrowserStack hauls in $50 million Series A from Accel". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-07-11.
- ↑ "Accel Team Jim Swartz".
- ↑ "A Venture Capitalist View of the Top 5 Entrepreneurial Energy Opportunities". Retrieved 2016-09-19.
- ↑ "Accel Partners, Venture Capital Fund: Andrew Braccia, Investments". www.fundingpost.com. Retrieved 2016-09-19.
- ↑ "Accel Boosts Team - PE Hub". 2013-07-24. Retrieved 2016-09-19.
- ↑ "History of Kohlberg, Kravis, Robert & Co".
- ↑ Kapner, Suzanne (2001-05-30). "U.S. Venture Capital Sees Treasure in Europe". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
- ↑ Dillet, Romain. "Venture firm Accel just raised a new $500 million European fund". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
- ↑ "Naspers acquires Russia's Avito in $1.2 billion transaction". Retrieved 2016-08-23.
- ↑ Rao, Leena. "Accel Leads $10M Round In European Airbnb For Car Ride-Sharing, BlablaCar". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
- ↑ "Deliveroo grabs $25M to bring its premium meal delivery service to more cities". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
- ↑ "Accel closes two funds totaling more than $1B".
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/business/dealbook/accel-raises-2-billion-to-invest-in-start-ups.html?_r=0
- ↑ Dillet, Romain. "Venture firm Accel just raised a new $500 million European fund". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-11.
- ↑ Loizos, Connie. "Accel India closes its newest fund with $450 million — and in record time". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-12-03.
- ↑ "Accel Closes India Venture Fund". Fortune. Retrieved 2017-01-26.
- ↑ "Accel". www.accel.com. Retrieved 2016-08-12.
- ↑ "Accel Partners Teardown". 2016-02-05. Retrieved 2016-08-12.
- ↑ "Accel Partners Teardown". 2016-02-05. Retrieved 2016-08-19.
- ↑ Loizos, Connie. "Venture firm Accel Partners just raised $2B from its investors". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-19.
- ↑ "Arista Networks IPO values company at about $2.75 billion". Retrieved 2014-06-05.
- ↑ "The Strategist". www.thestrategist.media. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
- ↑ ChrisSpillane, Ilya Khrennikov Christopher Spillane. "Naspers Takes Control of Russia's Avito in $1.2 Billion Purchase". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
- ↑ Rao, Leena; Perez, Sarah; Lunden, Ingrid. "EBay's PayPal Acquires Payments Gateway Braintree For $800M In Cash". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
- ↑ Kendall, Marisa. "Cloudera, Silicon Valley's latest IPO, pops in first day trading". Mercury News. Retrieved 2017-04-28.
- ↑ "Argentine travel firm Despegar stock jumps on U.S. IPO". Reuters. 2017-09-20. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
- ↑ "Etsy prices its IPO at $16 per share, making it worth $1.78 billion". Retrieved 2016-08-18.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Barinka, Alex. "Accel-Backed ForeScout Climbs After Raising $116 Million in IPO". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2017-10-27.
- ↑ Cao, Jing; King, Ian. "SanDisk to Buy Fusion-io for $1.1 Billion". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
- ↑ "Ritchie Bros. Completes Its Acquisition of IronPlanet". Retrieved 2017-05-31.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ "Salesforce Buys Krux, the Data-Management Platform, for $700 Million". Retrieved 2016-10-03.
- ↑ "LinkedIn Enters Ed Tech with Lynda.com Acquisition – Its Largest Acquisition Ever". 2015-04-09. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
- ↑ "It's Official: China's Wanda Acquires Legendary Entertainment for $3.5 Billion". Retrieved 2016-08-18.
- ↑ Forsell, Thomas (2017-09-28). "Angry Birds maker Rovio valued at $1 billion in IPO". Reuters. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ "'A sigh of relief' for Silicon Valley as consumer-Web stock Trulia soars in IPO". Retrieved 2016-09-06.
- ↑ Christie, Les (2014-07-28). "Zillow buys Trulia for $3.5 billion". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2016-09-06.
- ↑ "Accel". www.accel.com. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
- ↑ "Accel". www.accel.com. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
- ↑ "Boosting the French Ecosystem, by Philippe Botteri (Accel Partners) - Bonjour la French Tech". 2015-10-15. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
- ↑ "Accel Partners is coming to town and here is how you meet them". 2014-07-09. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
- ↑ "Accel Partners hires Facebook exec to focus funds on Israel". Geektime. 2016-06-08. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
- ↑ "Inside Accel Partners' $US200m search for Australia's next tech titan". 2014-10-07. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
- ↑ Ryall, Jenni. "New Zealand startup Xero scores $147 million from Silicon Valley investor". Mashable. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
- ↑ Shieber, Jonathan. "Accel Renews Commitment To Brazilian Startups With $10M EduK Investment". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
- ↑ "As Canadian startups grow, local venture capital funding dries up". Retrieved 2016-09-15.
- ↑ Barboza, David. "Accel's Breyer to Partner With Venture Capital Firm in China". Retrieved 2016-09-15.
- ↑ "100 Tech Investors Active in the Nordics - Standout Capital". 2014-04-02. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
External links
- Accel (company website)
- Crunchbase Profile