Accel has closed a $650M early-stage fund to support founders building companies out of Europe and Israel. Now in its 24th year on the ground in Europe, Accel’s eighth early-stage fund will build on the strategy of previous funds as the team continues to partner with transformative European and Israeli enterprise and consumer technology companies at the earliest stages. Accel wants to upend the ‘VC winter’ due to indicators of opportunity.

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, in stark contrast to the $1.1B invested in Europe and Israel in 2003. Additionally, former unicorn employees have fuelled more than 1,400 new tech-enabled startups across the regions.

“Finding, building relationships and partnering with exceptional founders regardless of where they are located has always been in our DNA,” said Harry Nelis, Partner at Accel. 

“Our belief almost 25 years ago that Europe and Israel’s entrepreneurs had the vision and ambition to create global, category-defining companies has ensured we’ve been fortunate enough to partner with many of the region’s iconic companies over several technology cycles. 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.”

Accel’s success stories include Supercell, BlaBlaCar, Doctolib, Shift Technology, SorareCelonis and Check24. Recent investments across Europe and Israel include Cyera, Filigran, Lottie, Oasis, Synthesia and Viso.