Prominent investors Accel and Prosus are launching a new investment partnership to support Indian startups from the ground up, targeting founders building large-scale solutions that have the potential to serve the South Asian country's masses.
The partnership, announced on Monday, marks the first time Prosus has invested in an establishment stage. The companies will co-invest from the early stages of startups, focusing on companies that address systemic challenges across areas such as automation, energy transition, internet services, and manufacturing.
India, the world's most populous country with over 1.4 billion people, is a rapidly growing digital economy. The country has more than 1 billion internet users and more than 700 million smartphone users, making it the second largest smartphone market after China. Indian government-backed platforms like Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Aadhaar have built digital infrastructure that allows startups to quickly build and scale their services. However, much of India's startup activity to date has focused on adapting global business models, with few companies tackling large-scale domestic challenges. The partnership between Axel and Prosus aims to change that.
The partnership expands on Accel's early-stage founder program, Atoms
“We feel that now is the right time for the Indian startup ecosystem to move from adapting to global business to building an Indian model that will help India leapfrog its path to becoming a developed country,” Accel partner Pratik Agarwal said in an interview.
He added that startups working on population-scale solutions often struggle to raise sufficient initial funding, given their long conception periods and the risk of significant dilution before reaching meaningful traction.
“Hopefully we can give them more seed capital at the right time and allow them to make substantial progress without having to experience several false starts before progressing,” he told TechCrunch.
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Under the partnership, Prosus has committed to pay an initial check equal to Accel's investment in each company, ranging from $100,000 to $1 million, with the potential for this amount to increase over time.
“Both of us could have continued on our own in this space, but given how big our founders' ambitions are and how difficult the problems they are trying to solve, it made a lot of sense for us to pool our resources,” said Ashutosh Sharma, Head of India Ecosystem at Prosus.
Prosus has traditionally focused on late-stage investments around the world. The Amsterdam-headquartered company counts Swiggy, Meesho and PayU among its major investments in India.
Prosus has committed to match Accel's investment in the partnership, but Mr. Sharma has indicated that he is not seeking an equal stake.
“For us, it's not important at all to get that stock in the first round,” he told TechCrunch. “If we can really identify Swiggy, Meesho, iFood or Tencent tomorrow, today, that’s success enough.”
This partnership will also expand the reach of Axel and Prosus in India. In recent months, the two companies have co-invested in startups such as AI-powered tutoring platform Alibihan and low-cost internet service provider Wiom.
“Some countries will be disproportionate beneficiaries and some countries will be disproportionate net beneficiaries of this AI-driven disruption that is happening around us,” Sharma said. “The two countries that seem to stand to benefit are the US and China. What is India's place in that world order and in that world story? And can India find its rightful place not just in AI but beyond AI as part of this 'leap technology' revolution? That's another ambition we have for this program.”
The partnership comes amid rising geopolitical tensions that are disrupting capital flows, technology supply chains, and market access, prompting global investors to reassess where they can deploy capital safely and at scale. India is increasingly seen as a strategic priority in this context due to its large domestic market, expanding digital infrastructure and deepening pool of technical talent.
“India's place in the global economy and geopolitical system is extremely important and India needs to chart and accelerate its path as a self-sovereign, independent and developed country,” Agarwal told TechCrunch.
Accel has already supported more than 40 startups through its early-stage program Atoms. More than 30% of those have raised additional funding from outside investors, with Accel itself leading more than half of those rounds.
According to Tracxn, VC funding in India in the first half of 2025 was down 25% year-on-year to $4.8 billion, with late-stage deals down 27% to $2.7 billion and early-stage funding down 16% to $1.6 billion.
Still, India remains a key focus for global investors due to its large population and growing digital adoption. In September, eight U.S. and Indian venture capital and private equity firms, including Accel, Blume Ventures, Celesta Capital, and Premji Invest, formed a coalition to back deep tech startups with more than $1 billion in funding. The partnership between Accel and Prosus is the latest example of global VCs continuing to make long-term bets on India.