Showing that there’s plenty of untapped potential in the Indian startup scene, Silicon Valley venture capital firm Accel Partners announced its $155 million Accel India III fund today for seed and early-stage investments in the country.
Accel, which already has 34 companies in its portfolio in India, said the fund would be focused on hot opportunities like mobile, digital media, enterprise and software-as-a-service companies, and Internet services. The firm already manages $80 million in India across two earlier funds — this latest addition brings its total funds in India to $235 million.
“While traditional venture capital and growth equity have been increasingly drawn to India over the past several years, the true seed and early stage markets are still underserved, attracting relatively smaller amounts of capital,” said Accel partner Subrata Mitra in a statement today. “We have seen a significant increase in entrepreneurial activity in the last few years, and in particular, we are pleased to see strong momentum from Internet companies in India.”
Accel, best known for its early stage investments in Facebook and Groupon, has partnered with Indian companies like Myntra and Flipkart, which is India’s Amazon-equivalent and one of a handful of Indian outfits said to be close to $1 billion valuations.
Accel currently manages $8 billion globally, $3 billion of which is for later stage growth investments. The firm says its India team will also be evaluating Indian companies for later stage opportunities.
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