Accel

Most of the big Silicon Valley venture firms sit on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park. Accel is the well known exception. Its Silicon Valley office is at 500 University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto, among restaurants, shops and the old offices of the startups it helped make famous. Accel's best known deal, its 2005 investment in Facebook, was signed when Facebook's own office was a few blocks away on Emerson Street.

This profile is a neutral explainer for visitors and founders. It is based on Accel's website and reporting from Bloomberg, Dealroom and other outlets. For the basics of how venture funds work, see our venture capital guide.

Founding and the prepared mind

Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz founded Accel in 1983. From the start they described their approach as building a prepared mind, after Louis Pasteur's line that chance favors the prepared mind. In practice that meant partners would study a few sectors in depth, form a view of where they were heading and then look for companies that fit, rather than wait for deals to arrive.

The firm's tagline today is "first partner to exceptional teams everywhere." Its website says it has invested in more than 300 companies, naming Facebook, Slack and Dropbox among them.

The office at 500 University Avenue

Accel's website lists two Bay Area offices: 500 University Avenue in Palo Alto and 35 South Park Street in San Francisco. It also has teams in London and Bangalore. The Palo Alto office puts the firm in the middle of downtown, roughly a 10 minute walk from the Caltrain station and close to the cafes where founders and investors often meet.

The office is private. It is not a storefront. Walking in to drop off a business plan will not help. The value of the location for visitors is the street around it. Our guide to downtown and University Avenue covers where to eat and drink nearby. Our University Avenue tech history explains why so many startups began on this street.

The Facebook deal

In the spring of 2005 Facebook was a college network that had moved from Harvard to Palo Alto the summer before. In May 2005 Accel invested $12.7 million for about 10 percent of the company, before Facebook had meaningful revenue. Jim Breyer, then an Accel partner, joined the board.

The bet was widely reported to be one of the most profitable in venture history. Accel's stake was valued at about $6.6 billion at Facebook's 2012 IPO. The deal also cemented Accel's link to downtown Palo Alto, where Facebook leased its first office at 471 Emerson Street and later spread across several buildings. Our page on Facebook's Palo Alto years walks through those addresses.

Other notable deals

Accel has backed companies in software, security, consumer internet and gaming in the United States, Europe and India. A few examples from public reporting:

Other companies linked to Accel in public reporting include Dropbox, Supercell, UiPath, Squarespace and Miro. As with any firm, the list of winners is only part of the picture. Most venture investments return little. A firm's results depend on a small number of very large outcomes.

Funds and size

Accel raises separate funds for different regions and stages, a structure that makes its total size harder to pin down than some rivals. Recent raises, with their sources:

• May 2024: $650 million for early-stage companies in Europe and Israel.
• January 2025: $650 million for early-stage companies in India and Southeast Asia, its eighth India fund.
• April 2026: about $5 billion for late-stage investing, made up of a $4 billion fifth Leaders fund plus a $650 million sidecar fund. Dealroom put Accel's total assets under management at about $31 billion including this raise.
• August 2026: $3.5 billion across four early-stage funds, according to Bloomberg and Dealroom, including $800 million for the United States and $800 million for Europe and Israel.

The late-stage Leaders fund was reported to plan 20 to 25 investments with average checks of about $200 million, much of it aimed at artificial intelligence companies.

A short walk around Accel's neighborhood

The blocks around 500 University Avenue hold a surprising amount of startup history. All of it can be seen from the sidewalk in under an hour. A simple loop:

1. Palo Alto Caltrain station. Start where University Avenue meets the tracks, the way many founders arrive for meetings.
2. 165 University Avenue. The so-called lucky building, where Google, PayPal's predecessor Confinity and others had early offices.
3. 471 Emerson Street. Facebook's first office, leased from January 2005, with a small marker on the building.
4. 500 University Avenue. Accel's office, a few blocks east. Look from the street only.
5. 367 Addison Avenue. The HP Garage, a longer walk south into Professorville.

Our famous tech addresses tour covers every stop in detail, with directions and tips for staying respectful on residential streets.

Advice for founders

Accel's website groups its team by region and focus. Look up the partners who cover your sector and read what they have backed and written. The usual route to a first meeting is a warm introduction from a founder, angel or lawyer the partner trusts. Keep the first email short and specific. Our guides to pitching investors and term sheet basics go deeper.

Staying nearby

Few venture offices are as easy to reach without a car. Caltrain stops a short walk away and downtown has plenty of places to work between meetings. Hotels within walking distance include Nobu Hotel Palo Alto at 180 Hamilton Avenue, el Prado at 520 Cowper Street and the Graduate by Hilton at 488 University Avenue. Compare hotels in downtown Palo Alto early if your trip overlaps with a Stanford event. From SFO or San Jose, a prebooked airport transfer takes the stress out of arrival day. Our guide to staying downtown compares the options.

Frequently asked questions