Accel eyes partial exits from multiple early investments

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Mumbai/Bengaluru: Early-stage venture capital (VC) firm Accel is evaluating partial stake sales in a bunch of its portfolio companies, including Swiggy, Urban Company, BlackBuck and BlueStone, as part of its ongoing efforts to create liquidity. The deals are expected to be a mix of pre-initial public offering (IPO) secondary sales and offer-for-sale (OFS) transactions in upcoming IPOs, three people familiar with the strategy said.

This further underscores that exit opportunities are becoming more ubiquitous for VC firms, even if they have been delayed. “Accel has been in a fundraising mode for the last few months and is actively looking at secondary opportunities to exit some of its portfolio companies and return capital to LPs (limited partners, which invest in VC funds)," one of the people cited above said. “Accel has been invested in these companies for a long time now and they are looking to liquidate some of its holdings in the pre-IPO and IPO stages," he added.

To be sure, the end goal for these companies is to tap an IPO, although the timelines may differ. Accel will pare its holding in IPO-bound online trucking firm BlackBuck, as per the company’s draft red herring prospectus filed in July. Online food delivery platform Swiggy is also expected to file its draft prospectus in the coming weeks, where Accel is said to be one of the selling shareholders, the people cited above said on the condition of anonymity.