As India’s VC space churns, is Accel prepping its next gen to take the reins?

As August drew to a close, reports emerged that Accel India, one of India’s earliest and most successful early-stage venture capital (VC) firms, was in the market to raise its eighth India-focused fund. 

Having raised its seventh fund—a $650 million corpus—in early 2022, Accel is looking to make a splash with its latest raise. The reports, which have not been confirmed nor denied by Accel, indicate this could be its largest yet, potentially crossing the $700-million mark. 

Accel is probably best known for its decision to back Flipkart when the e-commerce giant was still relatively unknown. That deal netted the firm an exit of $2 billion on an $80 million investment when Walmart acquired Flipkart in 2018—the most successful startup investment for an Indian VC firm.

Accel has continued to invest in several successful companies, such as Swiggy, UrbanClap, Eruditus, and others, becoming one of India’s most active early-stage venture capital firms. It typically prides itself on being the first institutional investor in a startup, although that role has evolved over the years. The dynamic duo of Prashanth Prakash and Subrata Mitra—the firm’s founding partners—are widely acknowledged as the driving force behind this winning streak.