Scaleup programmes
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Accel [2023]
Finance and Risk Capital
Impact for scaleups
40
UK companies backed
45%
Follow-on investments
15%
Investments outside of London
27
Growth-stage investments
Key sectors
Describing itself as a “global partnership to work with the most innovative companies,” Accel is an early and growth-stage VC firm which invests in technology companies in the US, Europe and India.
Between January 2016 to June 2023, the fund participated in 73 fundraisings for 40 UK-based companies. It recently invested in UK scaleups such as Synthesia, a London-based generative AI company that creates realistic human avatars for delivering presentations.
Other investments have included fintechs OpenGamma, Genesis, SuperPayments, Monzo and Soldo, the car buying platform Carwow, design and collaboration platform Gravity Sketch, and zero food waste app Olio.
The great majority of Accel’s investments in the UK are in companies based in London but it has also supported the north-west software development platform Raycast.
Between January 2016 to June 2023, the average turnover of companies supported by Accel was £91.1m with an estimated average number of 247 employees.
In 2022, the firm closed a $4bn global, later-stage fund to provide expansion capital to promising companies within the firm’s global portfolio.
With offices in San Francisco, London and India, the firm uses its network to enable portfolio companies to hire senior leaders, expand into new markets, and provide introductions to new customers. Accel runs events for its portfolio to encourage the sharing of good practice, such as its global SaaStock event, and publishes its annual Euroscape which lists the top 100 SaaS companies in Europe and Israel.
