Story investors Accel and Prosus have launched a new investment partnership to back Indian startups from day zero, targeting founders building large-scale solutions with the potential to serve the masses in the South Asian nation.
The collaboration was announced on Monday and marks the first time Prosus has invested in the formation stage. Both companies will co-invest from a startup’s earliest days, focusing on companies that address systemic challenges across sectors such as automation, energy transition, internet services and manufacturing.
India, the world’s most populous country with over 1.4 billion people, is experiencing rapid growth in its digital economy. The country has more than one billion internet users and over 700 million smartphone users, making it the second largest smartphone market after China. The Indian government-backed platforms such as Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Aadhaar have created a digital infrastructure that enables startups to build and scale services quickly. Yet much of India’s startup activity to date has focused on adapting global business models, with fewer companies tackling major domestic challenges. The Accel-Prosus alliance seeks to change that.
The partnership expands Accel’s early-stage founder program, Atoms X, launched in July to support what the firm calls “leap tech” startups — companies working on large-scale, systems-driven problems.
“We feel the time has come for the Indian startup ecosystem to shift from adapting global companies to creating Indian models that will help India leapfrog its journey towards becoming a developed country,” Pratik Agarwal, partner at Accel, said in an interview.
He added that startups working on population-scale solutions often struggle to raise sufficient early capital due to their long gestation periods and the risk of severe dilution before reaching meaningful traction.
“Hopefully, we bring a lot more early capital to them at the right time so they can make significant progress without going through multiple rounds of false starts before making progress,” he told TechCrunch.
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Under the partnership, Prosus has committed to match Accel’s investment in each company with initial checks ranging from $100,000 to $1 million — a figure that could increase over time.
“We could both continue to do our own thing in this space, but given the ambition of these founders, and given the difficulty of a problem they’re trying to solve, it made perfect sense for us to pool our resources,” said Ashutosh Sharma, head of the India ecosystem at Prosus.
Traditionally, Prosus has focused on late-stage investments globally. The Amsterdam-headquartered firm counts Swiggy, Meesho and PayU among its key investments in India.
While Prosus has committed to match Accel’s investment in this partnership, Sharma indicated that it is not seeking a matching stake.
“For us, getting that first-round equity is not important at all,” he told TechCrunch. “If we can really identify a Swiggy, a Meesho, an iFood or a Tencent of tomorrow – today – that’s success enough.”
The partnership also expands the scope of Accel and Prosus’ operations in India. In recent months, the two firms have jointly invested in startups such as AI-powered education platform Arivihan and low-cost internet provider Wiom.
“Because of this AI-led disruption happening around us, some countries will be disproportionately benefited from this — and some countries will be disproportionately net losers,” Sharma said. “Two countries that seem very much positioned to be favored are the United States and China. Now in that world order and in that world narrative, what is India’s space? And so, as part of this ‘leap tech’ revolution, can India find the right place, not just in AI, but beyond AI, is the other, let’s say, ambition that we have with this program.”
The alliance comes amid growing geopolitical tensions that have disrupted capital flows, technology supply chains and market access – prompting global investors to reassess where capital can be deployed safely and at scale. With a large domestic market, expanding digital infrastructure and a deepening pool of technical talent, India is increasingly seen as a strategic priority in this landscape.
“India’s place in the global economy and geopolitical system is such that India needs to chart and accelerate its path as a self-sovereign, independent, developed country,” Agarwal told TechCrunch.
Accel has already backed more than 40 startups through its early stage program, Atoms. Over 30% of them have raised follow-on funding from outside investors, with Accel itself leading more than half of these rounds.
VC funding in India fell 25% year-on-year to $4.8 billion in the first half of 2025, per Tracxn, 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, driven by its large population and growing digital adoption. In September, eight US and Indian VC and private equity firms — including Accel, Blume Ventures, Celesta Capital and Premji Invest — formed a coalition to back deep tech startups with over $1 billion in commitment. The Accel-Prosus partnership is the latest example of how global VCs continue to place long-term bets on India.