Accel and Prosus workforce as much as help early-stage Indian startups

Landmark buyers Accel and Prosus have launched a brand new funding partnership to help Indian startups from day zero, concentrating on founders creating large-scale options with the potential to serve the plenty within the South Asian nation.

Introduced on Monday, the collaboration marks the primary time Prosus has invested within the coaching part. Each corporations will make investments collectively from the early days of a startup, specializing in corporations going through systemic challenges in sectors reminiscent of automation, vitality transition, web providers and manufacturing.

India, essentially the most populous nation on the planet, with greater than 1.4 billion inhabitants, is experiencing fast progress in its digital financial system. The nation has more than a billion internet users and more than 700 million smartphone usersmaking it the second largest smartphone market after China. Indian government-backed platforms reminiscent of Unified Funds Interface (UPI) and Aadhaar have created a digital infrastructure that permits startups to shortly construct and scale providers. Nonetheless, a lot of India’s startup exercise thus far has targeted on adapting international enterprise fashions, with fewer corporations tackling large-scale nationwide challenges. The Accel-Prosus alliance seeks to alter that.

The partnership expands Accel’s early-stage founder program, Atomslaunched in July to help what the corporate calls “leaptech” startups – corporations engaged on large-scale, systems-oriented issues.

“We really feel now’s the proper time for the Indian startup ecosystem to maneuver from adapting international companies to creating Indian fashions that assist India advance on its journey to changing into a developed nation,” mentioned Pratik Agarwal, accomplice at Accel, in an interview.

He added that startups engaged on population-scale options usually battle to boost adequate seed capital, given their lengthy gestation intervals and the chance of heavy dilution earlier than attaining important traction.

“Hopefully, we’re bringing much more seed capital to them on the proper time to allow them to make substantial progress with out going via a number of rounds of false begins earlier than they make progress,” he advised TechCrunch.

As a part of the partnership, Prosus has dedicated to matching Accel’s funding in every firm, with preliminary checks ranging between $100,000 and $1 million – an quantity that would improve over time.

“We may each proceed to do our personal issues on this house, however given the dimensions of those founders’ ambition, and given the issue of the issue they’re making an attempt to resolve, it made good sense for us to pool our sources,” mentioned Ashutosh Sharma, head of India ecosystem at Prosus.

Historically, Prosus has targeted on late-stage investments globally. The Amsterdam-based firm depends on Swiggy, Meeshoand PayU amongst its main investments in India.

Whereas Prosus has dedicated to matching Accel’s funding on this partnership, Sharma has indicated that it’s not searching for an equal fairness stake.

“For us, getting this fairness within the first spherical shouldn’t be vital in any respect,” he advised TechCrunch. “If we will really establish a Swiggy, a Meesho, an iFood or a Tencent of tomorrow – right this moment – that might be success sufficient.”

The partnership additionally expands the scope of Accel and Prosus’ exercise in India. In current months, the 2 corporations have co-invested in startups such because the AI-powered tutoring platform Arivihan and low-cost web service supplier Wiom.

“Due to this AI-led disruption occurring throughout us, some international locations might be disproportionate beneficiaries of this – and a few international locations might be disproportionate internet losers,” Sharma mentioned. “Two international locations that appear very nicely positioned to be beneficiaries are the US and China. Now, on this world order and on this world narrative, what’s India’s place? And may India, subsequently, as a part of this ‘expertise leap’ revolution, discover the proper place, not simply in AI, however past AI, is the opposite, let’s assume, ambition that now we have with this program.”

The alliance comes amid rising geopolitical tensions which have disrupted capital flows, expertise provide chains and market entry – prompting international buyers to re-evaluate the place capital might be deployed safely and at scale. With a big home market, an increasing digital infrastructure and a rising pool of technical expertise, India is more and more seen as a strategic precedence on this situation.

“India’s place within the international financial system and geopolitical system is such that India must chart and speed up its path as a self-sovereign, impartial and developed nation,” Agarwal advised TechCrunch.

Accel has supported greater than 40 startups via its early-stage program, Atoms. Greater than 30% of them managed to acquire follow-on financing from exterior buyers, with Accel itself main greater than half of those rounds.

Enterprise capital funding in India fell 25% year-over-year to $4.8 billion within the first half of 2025, in keeping with Tracxn, with late-stage offers falling 27% to $2.7 billion and early-stage funding falling 16% to $1.6 billion.

Nonetheless, India stays a key focus for international buyers, pushed by its giant inhabitants and increasing digital adoption. In September, eight US and Indian enterprise capital and personal fairness companies – together with Accel, Blume Ventures, Celesta Capital and Premji Make investments – fashioned a coalition to help deep tech startups with greater than $1 billion in commitments. The Accel-Prosus partnership is the most recent instance of how international VCs proceed to make long-term bets on India.