US-based venture firm Accel has raised $800m for its ninth Europe and Israel early-stage VC fund, in addition to another $2.7bn for three other funds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite its American headquarters, the firm has been active in Europe for more than 25 years; Accel says it\u2019s backed almost 250 European companies in total. The firm has invested in some of Europe\u2019s biggest companies, including Romanian firm UiPath, UK fintech Monzo and French health platform Doctolib.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Recently, Accel has, like most multi-stage VCs, aimed to capitalise on the hottest trends in Europe: defence and AI.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s struck a number of big European deals including Swedish vibe coding startup Lovable, German AI agents startup N8n, British air defence maker Cambridge Aerospace and Swedish legaltech Legora.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Europe\u2019s tech ecosystem \u201chas evolved dramatically,\u201d Harry Nelis, partner at Accel, said in a statement. \u201cToday, that momentum is accelerating, with exceptional companies emerging across the region and increasingly building for global markets from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n
And AI is front and centre for Accel\u2019s new fund: \u201cAI is the most transformative technology we have ever seen, opening up new areas for innovation and compressing the time it takes to go from an idea to a scaled business,\u201d Nelis added.\u00a0<\/p>\n