Renowned investors Accel and Prosus have launched a latest investment partnership to support Indian start-ups from day zero, targeting founders building solutions at scale that may serve the masses in the South Asian country.
The cooperation announced on Monday is the first investment by Prosus at the formation stage. The two corporations will invest together from the startup’s inception, focusing on corporations addressing systemic challenges in various sectors corresponding to automation, energy transition, web services and manufacturing.
India, the most populous country in the world with over 1.4 billion inhabitants, is witnessing the rapid development of its digital economy. The country has over a billion Internet users AND over 700 million smartphone usersmaking it the second largest smartphone market after China. Indian government-backed platforms corresponding to Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Aadhaar have created digital infrastructure that allows startups to quickly build and scale services. However, much of India’s startup activity so far has focused on adapting global business models, and fewer corporations are tackling domestic challenges at scale. The Accel-Prosus Alliance wants to change this.
The partnership expands Accel’s early-stage founder program, X atomslaunched in July to support so-called “leap tech” startups – corporations working on large-scale systems-based problems.
“We believe that the time is right for the Indian startup ecosystem to shift from adapting global enterprises to creating Indian models that will help India on the path to becoming a developed country,” Pratik Agarwal, partner at Accel, said in an interview.
He added that startups working on population-scale solutions often struggle to raise sufficient early-stage capital, given their long gestation period and the risk of being heavily diluted before achieving significant traction.
“We hope to provide them with a lot more early-stage capital, at the right time, so they can make significant progress without having to go through several rounds of false starts before they make progress,” he told TechCrunch.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025
As a part of the partnership, Prosus has committed to matching Accel’s investment in each company, with initial checks ranging from $100,000 to $1 million, an amount that would increase over time.
“We could both continue to do our thing in this space, but given how big these founders are ambitious and how difficult the problem they are trying to solve is, combining our resources made sense,” said Ashutosh Sharma, head of India ecosystem at Prosus.
Traditionally, Prosus has focused on late-stage investments around the world. The Amsterdam-based company counts Swiggy, Meeshoand PayU among key investments in India.
While Prosus has committed to matching Accel’s investment in the partnership, Sharma indicated that it is not looking for an equivalent equity share.
“For us, getting that equity in the first round is not important at all,” he told TechCrunch. “If we can truly identify the Swiggy, Meesho, iFood or Tencent of tomorrow – today – that is success enough.”
The partnership also expands Accel and Prosus’ footprint in India. In recent months, the two corporations have jointly invested in startups corresponding to an AI-powered tutoring platform Arivihan and low cost web service provider Hello.
“Because of the AI disruptions that are happening around us, some countries will be disproportionate beneficiaries and some countries will be disproportionate net losers,” Sharma said. “Two countries that seem very suitable to be beneficiaries are the United States and China. What is India’s space in this world order and in this world narrative? And so whether India, within this leapfrog technology revolution, can find its rightful place not only in artificial intelligence but beyond it is the second, shall we say, ambition that we have in this program.”
The alliance comes amid rising geopolitical tensions that have disrupted capital flows, technology supply chains and market access, prompting global investors to reassess where capital could be deployed safely and at scale. With a large domestic market, growing digital infrastructure and a deepening tech talent pool, India is increasingly seen as a strategic priority in this landscape.
“India’s place in the global economy and geopolitical system is such that India must chart and accelerate its path like a sovereign, independent and developed country,” Agarwal told TechCrunch.
Accel has already supported over 40 startups through its early-stage program, Atoms. More than 30% of them raised further funding from external investors, with Accel itself leading in greater than half of those rounds.
According to Tracxn, VC funding in India fell 25% year-on-year to $4.8 billion in the first half of 2025, with late-stage deals down 27% to $2.7 billion and early-stage funding down 16% to $1.6 billion.
Still, India stays a top focus for global investors due to its large population and increasing digital adoption. In September, eight U.S. and Indian VC and private equity firms – including Accel, Blume Ventures, Celesta Capital and Premji Invest – formed a coalition to support deep tech startups with greater than $1 billion. The Accel-Prosus partnership is the latest example of how global VCs proceed to bet on India for the long run.