Erasmic Venture Fund, a seed-stage venture capital fund based in Bangalore with a corpus of $10 million, has merged with US-based venture fund - Accel Partners. Accel Partners has a history of having invested in Facebook and Walmart.com and manages $4 billion worth of assets across more than 300 firms. Erasmic for its first fund had Google as one of its investors.
According to a statement from Accel Partners this combination will initiate the formation of Accel India Venture Fund. The latest element in Accel’s global strategy, Accel India Venture will focus on early-stage venture investing, delivering active, hands-on strategic and operational guidance in partnership with India’s most promising entrepreneurs. The new India fund will raise a $60 million fund.
The Fund will pursue a multi-sector strategy, targeting opportunities in Technology, Technology-enabled Services, Internet, Mobile, Media, Life Sciences, Consumer Products and Services, and other high-growth sectors of the Indian economy.
Accel India Venture Fund will be managed by four experienced partners who currently are the Partners of Erasmic Venture Fund (EVF). EVF's portfolio includes HolidayIQ, Kaati Zone, Myntra among others. Subrata Mitra, Prashanth Prakash, Mahendran Balachandran and Gagan Kumar, partners at EVF will continue to manage the Accel India Fund.
“Accel sees a tremendous need and opportunity for an active, highly-engaged approach to early-stage investing in India,” said Peter Wagner, Partner at Accel Partners.
“We are very excited to be a part of the Accel team,” said Prashanth Prakash, Partner at Accel India Venture Fund. “The combination of the powerful Accel platform and our team’s deep involvement in the local entrepreneurial process will help create a new generation of category-defining companies in India.”