Storied investors Accel and Prosus have launched a new investment partnership to back Indian startups from day zero. The alliance targets founders building large-scale solutions with the potential to serve the masses in the South Asian nation. Announced on Monday, this collaboration marks the first time Prosus is investing at the formation stage. Both firms will co-invest from a startup’s earliest days, focusing on companies that address systemic challenges across sectors such as automation, energy transition, internet services, and manufacturing.
India, the world’s most populous country with over 1.4 billion people, is experiencing rapid growth in its digital economy. The country has more than a billion internet users and over 700 million smartphone users, making it the second-largest smartphone market after China. Government-backed platforms like the Unified Payments Interface and Aadhaar have created a digital infrastructure that enables startups to build and scale services quickly. However, much of India’s startup activity to date has focused on adapting global business models, with fewer companies tackling large-scale domestic challenges. The Accel-Prosus alliance aims to change that.
This partnership expands Accel’s early-stage founder program, Atoms, which was launched in July to back what the firm calls leap tech startups. These are companies working on large-scale, systems-driven problems. A partner at Accel stated that the time is right for the Indian startup ecosystem to move from adapting global businesses to creating Indian models that help India leapfrog its journey toward becoming a developed country.
He added that startups working on population-scale solutions often struggle to raise sufficient early capital due to long gestation periods and the risk of heavy dilution before achieving meaningful traction. The hope is that this partnership will bring more early capital to founders at the right time, allowing them to make substantial progress without going through several rounds of false starts.
Under the partnership, Prosus has committed to matching Accel’s investment in each company. Initial checks will range from one hundred thousand to one million dollars, a figure that could increase over time. The head of India ecosystem at Prosus explained that given the large ambition of these founders and the difficulty of the problems they are solving, it made sense to combine resources.
Traditionally, Prosus has focused on late-stage investments globally. The Amsterdam-headquartered firm counts Swiggy, Meesho, and PayU among its key investments in India. While Prosus has committed to matching Accel’s investment, it is not seeking an equivalent equity stake in the first round. The firm believes that successfully identifying the standout companies of tomorrow is the primary goal.
The partnership also broadens the scope of Accel and Prosus’s activity in India. In recent months, the two firms have co-invested in startups such as an AI-powered tutoring platform and a low-cost internet service provider. A representative from Prosus noted that due to AI-led disruption, some countries will be disproportionate beneficiaries. The ambition of this program is to help India find its rightful place in this new world order, not just in AI, but beyond.
This alliance comes amid growing geopolitical tensions that have disrupted capital flows, technology supply chains, and market access. These shifts are prompting global investors to reassess where capital can be deployed safely and at scale. With its large domestic market, expanding digital infrastructure, and deepening pool of technical talent, India is increasingly seen as a strategic priority. India’s place in the global economy is such that it needs to chart and accelerate its path like a self-sovereign, independent, developed country.
Accel has already backed more than forty startups through its early-stage program. Over thirty percent of them have gone on to raise follow-on funding from external investors, with Accel itself leading more than half of those rounds. Venture capital funding in India fell twenty-five percent year-over-year to four point eight billion dollars in the first half of the year. Despite this, late-stage deals dropped twenty-seven percent and early-stage funding was down sixteen percent.
India remains a key focus for global investors, driven by its large population and expanding digital adoption. In September, eight US and Indian venture capital and private equity firms formed a coalition to back deep tech startups with over one billion dollars in commitment. The Accel-Prosus partnership is the latest example of how global venture capital firms continue to place long-term bets on India.