Erasmic, Accel merge to form India fund

Erasmic Venture Fund, a Bangalore-based, seed-stage venture capital (VC) fund with a corpus of $10 million, has merged with US-based venture fund Accel Partners. Accel Partners, which manages $4-billion assets across more than 300 companies, has invested in Facebook and Walmart.com.

Google was one of the investors of Erasmic’s first fund.

According to a statement from Accel Partners, the merger will initiate the formation of Accel India Venture Fund. Accel India Venture Fund will focus on early-stage investment, 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.

 

The fund will pursue a multi-sector strategy, targeting opportunities in technology, technology-enabled services, internet, mobile, media, life sciences, consumer products and services companies and other high-growth sectors of the economy.

Accel India Venture Fund will be managed by four experienced partners, who currently are partners of Erasmic Venture Fund (EVF). EVF’s portfolio includes HolidayIQ, Kaati Zone and Myntra, among others. Subrata Mitra, Prashanth Prakash, Mahendran Balachandran and Gagan Kumar, the 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 of Accel Partners.