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Venture capital firm Accel has launched its eighth fund, earmarking $650 million to fund early-stage Indian startups.

CapTable had exclusively reported in September that the firm was in the market to raise its eighth India-focused fund.

The new fund saw participation from 131 undisclosed investors.

Accel aims to invest back founders operating in enterprise AI and service-as-software (AI startups taking advantage of India’s large IT services capabilities to provide automation offerings). It is also looking to invest in consumer companies, wealth management startups, and manufacturing companies, among others.

The corpus amount of the new fund remains the same as the VC’s previous fund, which was raised in early 2022.

Accel is a global VC firm that partners with startups across various stages. It has backed over 300 startups, including Facebook, Dropbox, Urban Company, and Flipkart.

Most recently, the firm tendered 10.5 million shares in an offer for sale in food delivery platform Swiggy’s IPO, realising a return of 3391% based on its acquisition cost of Rs 11.17 per share.

The new fund comes at a time when early-stage funding has lagged behind growth-stage and late-stage investments, as investors look to cash in on the IPO rush and startups with an established product-market fit. YourStory had previously reported this.

Additionally, with VC-backed companies representing less than 5% of India’s market capitalisation, the firm says strong public and private markets now provide founders opportunities to “build transformative businesses that shape the economic landscape.”

“India’s benchmark equity index Nifty 50 has tripled over the past decade, and public markets are embracing technology-led businesses. Companies like BlackBuck and Swiggy, where Accel was an early backer, are recent examples of creative and relentless founders and what’s possible when innovation meets execution,” the firm said in a statement.