Stating they are one of the very few VC firms that are truly global, Accel is reporting that it is raising a $650 million fund to support early-stage ventures in Europe and Israel.
Accel opened its London office in 2000 as one of the first Silicon Valley VC firms to set up a European team to participate in the evolution of the region’s technology landscape.
Accel’s eighth early-stage fund is expected to build upon the strategy of previous by working with transformative European and Israeli enterprise and consumer technology companies at the earliest stages.
The VC states:
- The European and Israeli VC market is now around half the size of that of the US (44%), with approximately $66B invested in 2023 vs the US’ $150B (Dealroom)
- This is in stark contrast to the $1.1B invested in Europe and Israel in 2003 (Dealroom)
- There are now 360+ VC-backed European and Israeli-founded unicorns (Dealroom)
- Former unicorn employees have fuelled more than 1,400 new tech-enabled startups across the regions
- Across Europe and Israel, Accel has now backed 200+ companies across more than 60 cities and 20 countries, including places such as Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, and Serbia that are outside of the region’s familiar tech hubs
- Of any venture capital firm, Accel has invested in the most European and Israeli-founded unicorns at the Series A stage (Dealroom)
Regarding investments, some of Accel’s portfolio companies include Finland (Supercell), France (BlaBlaCar, Doctolib, Shift Technology, Sorare), Germany (Celonis, Check24, Personio, sennder, Trade Republic), Israel (Cyera, Melio, Snyk), Lithuania (Vinted), Norway (ForgeRock), Sweden (Avito, Spotify), Romania (UiPath), and the UK (GoCardless, Monzo, Synthesia, Zepz).
Harry Nelis, Partner at Accel, says beginning almost 25 years ago Accel had the luck to partner with some of the most dynamic tech firms in the region.
“These companies have laid the foundations of the thriving landscape we see today, fuelling and inspiring the next wave of founders who can now see what’s possible. Our capillary networks cultivated over more than two decades ensure our team has a deep knowledge of the region. With Europe and Israel producing exceptional talent in areas such as AI, cybersecurity, fintech and the modern data stack, we’re looking forward to supporting the next generation of founders.”
