From a small Silicon Valley fund, Accel grew into a global powerhouse that helped build companies like Facebook, Dropbox, and Etsy, becoming one of the most influential venture capital firms in the world. Accel focuses on founders and products that can disrupt the status quo and scale globally. The results speak for themselves: nearly 2,000 investments, 354 exits, and over $11 billion raised for its funds. European exits alone have reached a value of $29.5 billion.
1983, California. Silicon Valley had already been driving the pace of the technological revolution for several years. In garages and small offices, products were being born that would soon, without exaggeration, change the world—from the first portable computers and gaming consoles to the Sony Walkman. The air was charged with innovation, and for the first time investors were turning their full attention to technology, backing new gadgets and software. It was in this environment, under the blazing Palo Alto sun, that Accel was founded—an investment firm that would soon become one of the most successful venture capital funds in the world.
Patterson and Swartz had first met while studying engineering at Harvard, but they truly bonded while working at Citicorp Venture Capital, one of the very first venture capital firms in the United States. At the time, the VC world was just taking shape. After the tech bubble burst in 1969—when the stock prices of computer companies, inflated by the Apollo-inspired boom, collapsed by as much as 80 percent—only about fifty companies remained on the market, names like Xerox and Kodak, considered safe bets for institutional investors. Beneath the surface, however, a much smaller and riskier world of venture capital was bubbling, ready for those willing to go against the tide.
Not long after Accel’s early successes, Breyer left the fund in 2006 to establish Breyer Capital, a global investor focused on supporting entrepreneurs with socially and economically transformative ideas. His investments included the Harvard Experiment Fund, Brightcove, Marvel Entertainment, and Legendary Pictures. A protégé of Accel, mentored for years by Patterson and Swartz, Breyer has backed more than forty companies that went public or were acquired. Some of his investments, including Facebook, returned more than a hundredfold, while many others delivered more than twenty-fivefold returns, according to Forbes. These achievements made him a billionaire and propelled him into the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans.
For Accel itself, Facebook was just the beginning. In the years that followed, the firm helped launch or grow companies that today define entire categories: Atlassian, Slack, Spotify, UiPath, Supercell, and Flipkart. Often, these projects seemed too bold, but Accel understood that groundbreaking ideas need more than capital. They require time, patience, and investors who believe even when the market turns away. This disciplined approach became Accel’s hallmark. “For example, we never invested in cleantech,” co-founder Jim Swartz reminded in an interview with Envzone. Accel focuses on founders and products that can disrupt the status quo and scale globally. The results again speak for themselves: nearly 2,000 investments, 354 exits, and over $11 billion raised for its funds. European exits alone have reached $29.5 billion.
Today, the fund is behind some of the world’s largest technology players. It is one of only six funds globally with more than one hundred unicorns—startups valued at over $1 billion—among them Klaviyo, Scale AI, and Lovable. In Europe, it holds the absolute record for the number of unicorn investments, and its funds are open only to the most elite investors: U.S. universities, sovereign wealth funds, and global family offices.
With hundreds of investments, dozens of unicorns, and billion-dollar exits, Accel has firmly established itself as one of the players setting the pace of the global technology business. Not only its impressive portfolio, but also its strategy, patience, faith in strong founders, and focus on products with global reach continue to make it one of the most disciplined and influential funds in the industry.
