Accel raises $800m for ninth early-stage Europe fund
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Accel just raised $800m for a new Europe and Israel startup fund. AI and defence are the magnets now, and it comes only two years after its last one.
Based on reporting by Sifted — read the original for the full story.
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Accel has closed an $800m fund for early-stage startups in Europe and Israel, its ninth for the region. On top of that, the US venture firm said it also pulled in another $2.7bn across three other funds.
The money lands just two years after Accel raised $650m for the same early-stage Europe and Israel strategy. That’s a quick return to market, and it says plenty about how much the firm still wants to keep playing in the region.
Accel has been in Europe for more than 25 years, despite being headquartered in the US, and says it has backed almost 250 European companies overall. Some of the names on that list are well known by European startup standards: UiPath, Monzo and Doctolib.
More recently, Accel has leaned into the areas that seem to be pulling in everyone else’s attention too: defence and AI. Its recent European bets include Lovable, N8n, Cambridge Aerospace and Legora, a mix that shows just how broad those two themes have become.
Harry Nelis, a partner at Accel, said Europe’s tech ecosystem has changed a lot and that companies are increasingly being built for global markets from the start. He also called AI the most transformative technology the firm has ever seen, saying it creates new areas for innovation and speeds up the jump from idea to scaled business.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
Accel is doing what the smartest big funds do: follow the heat, but keep a long memory. Europe keeps producing companies worth the check size, while AI and defence give investors a fresh excuse to act like they spotted the future first. The only truly surprising part is how many of them still say that with a straight face.
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