Two new funds amounting to $1.475 billion were raised by Accel Partners while Jim Breyer, the Accel leader who was integral in the venture capital firm's investment in Facebook, will be reducing his role in the fund, Forbes reported.
The Accel XII fund raised $475 million while the Accel Growth III fund raised $1 billion. The Accel XII fund will be making early stage investments while the Accel Growth III fund will be giving capital to firms who are seeking to grow their operations, the report said.
Jim Breyer,however, will be lessening the time he spends in the venture firm's Palo Alto office so that he would be able to put more time on Breyer Capital, his own investment firm. In 2005, Breyer and his partner Kevin Efrusy invested $12.2 million in the startup that was then known as "Thefacebook" which effectively gave a gain of $6 billion when Facebook went public in 2012, the report said.
Breyer told Forbes through email, "This is a great day for Accel with the closing of Accel XII and Accel Growth Fund III. As a partner I am highly supportive of the next generation of leaders at Accel and plan to be actively involved with the new funds while also increasing my independent investment activity through my family office Breyer Capital."
Sameer Gandhi, a partner at Accel, told Forbes that the funds will mainly be targeting US firms, especially those found in the Bay Area where Accel has seen so much success in its investments. Accel's growth also seems set to continue even without one of its notable leaders. Accel XII has the same size as that of Accel XI while Accel Growth III is even larger than its predecessor which only raised $875 million, the report said.
Commenting on the traditional strategy of Accel, Gandhi said, "It's a very focused effort on early-stage. [It's] an effort led by a relatively compact U.S. team, thinking about disruptive and innovative early-stage companies."
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