Erasmic merges with Accel Partners

Bangalore, Jul 28: There are very few early stage VCs or Seed Funds in India. Erasmic, one of the leading Seed Funds in India, has merged with Accel Partners. The new entity will be called Accel India Venture Fund and it will focus on only on India. The four existing partners -- Prashanth Prakash, Subrata Mitra, Mahendra Balachandran and Gagan Kumar -- will manage the funds

Confirming the deal Prashanth Prakash said the new fund, Accel India Venture Fund II, will raise $60 million and will be operational by Third quarter 2008. Accel is one of the leading investors in the US and this merger will take Erasmic to the next level. Market sources say Accel India will be on par with Sequoia Capital.

Google is one of the investors in Erasmic. The current fund invested is anywhere between $100,000 to $500,000. The fund has spread its portfilio between online and offline in a very balanced way. In Bangalore their portfolio company Kaati Zone is a popular hang out amongst youngsters. In the online space HolidayIQ.com is seen as the leading travel review site in India.

The new fund will invest in internet, mobile, media, life sciences, technology and consumer focussed companies.

Erasmic started off with the idea of helping out startups to move to the next level. Even though the new fund will be six times larger than the current fund, it has decided to continue providing seed funding.

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