Accel in India

For many B2B revenue teams, the core challenge isn’t a lack of tools, it’s unreliable data spread across too many systems. The typical response is to add more software. But more tools often create more silos, making the underlying data problem even harder to solve. By the time a sales rep is ready to engage, critical account context is fragmented across systems. Adding AI on top doesn’t fix this, it just accelerates bad decisions. Sprouts.ai goes a layer deeper. They’ve built a continuously refreshed intelligence layer that cleans, enriches, and unifies account data, so their AI revenue agents operate on signals teams can actually trust. These agents identify the right accounts, surface buying intent, map decision-makers, and execute outreach — directly within Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics. Karan Chaudhry, Co-Founder and CEO, Kapil Chaudhry, Co-Founder and CTO, and Avinash Nagla, Co-Founder and COO, founded the company in 2023. In under two years, customers are already seeing 3x more qualified leads and 35% lower GTM costs. We’re continuing our partnership with the team as they reimagine how modern B2B revenue organizations operate. @skirani • #AccelFamily

Read more here: economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/funding/r…

For most Indians, a reliable and affordable daily commute remains a gap, one that gets wider the further you move from the big cities. At the same time, flexible, dignified earning opportunities for those with a vehicle to offer have been just as hard to come by. Rapido (@rapidobikeapp) was built to solve both. Through a SaaS-driven platform, Rapido made it possible for drivers to earn more reliably, and for riders to get where they needed to go. They built deep in tier 2+ markets where demand was accelerating, but reliable mobility simply didn't exist. Aravind Sanka (@sankaaravind), Pavan Guntupalli (@DjorAchilles), and Rishikesh SR (@regards_rishi) spent a decade building for the India that most platforms hadn't reached yet. We're partnering with them to make reliable commute and dignified earning opportunities available in every corner of Bharat. @AbhinavC • @RishikaGarg14 • #AccelFamily

Another thread from our recent closed-door conversation with some of India's top consumer tech founders. This continues the series. Most companies are using AI to cut costs. The founders in the room were clear that this is the floor, not the ceiling. The bigger opportunity, as they described it, sits in two places. Taking functions that only cost money, like customer support, and turning them into revenue lines. And unlocking capabilities that simply weren't possible before, at a level competition can't match. The three dimensions, with examples shared in the room, are in the carousel in the next tweet. @skirani • @prashanthp • @binnybansal • @ankitnagori27 • @phanikishan

We recently hosted a closed-door conversation with some of India's top consumer tech founders. This post continues the learnings we shared a few days back. Shekhar Kirani (@skirani), Partner at Accel, walked the room through the four stages every company moves through on the path to AI transformation. Most Indian companies are stuck somewhere between stage one and stage two. The four stages are in the carousel. A few patterns stood out across the companies furthest along: → One co-founder fully dedicated to the transformation, leading a team of 5 to 10 enthusiasts. The rest of the founding team runs the business. → Individual productivity and company-level automation in parallel. Pick one slice of the business, automate it end-to-end, use it as proof, then expand. → Hiring freezes unless the team can show AI is being used. @prashanthp • @binnybansal • @ankitnagori27 • @phanikishan

Read more here: moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/c…

In a column published today, Alok Bathija, Partner, Corporate Development at Accel argues that consolidation may become one of the biggest value creators in India’s startup ecosystem. The 2024 HomeLane-DesignCafe merger is not just a furniture/interiors story. It reflects a broader shift underway in Indian tech. For years, startups were rewarded for growth at all costs: - raise more capital, - acquire users aggressively, - expand fast. But today, capital is tighter and public markets are rewarding profitability and operating discipline. Which means consolidation may become a much bigger value creator than we think. Combining customer bases, reducing CAC duplication, improving procurement leverage, and building operational efficiency could create stronger, more durable companies. In the US, many industries matured through consolidation. India’s startup ecosystem may now be entering a similar phase, especially because we still lack enough scaled tech acquirers. The next generation of enduring Indian companies may not just be built through hypergrowth. They may be built through smarter combinations. Link to his @moneycontrolcom column in the next tweet.

The images below capture what the room said. Over the next few days, we’ll share more on what we heard about how founders can adopt AI and how they can get their teams to move. (2/2)

Last week, we hosted a closed-door roundtable on AI for consumer tech brands — a candid conversation with founders on how they're adopting AI in their organisations and what it actually takes to institutionalize it. Prashanth Prakash (@prashanthp) and Shekhar Kirani (@skirani), Partners at Accel, and Binny Bansal (@binnybansal), Co-founder of Flipkart, hosted the session. One idea kept coming up: high standards are not inherently transferable. You cannot hold your team accountable for AI fluency if you haven't used it yourself. @ankitnagori27 • @phanikishan (1/2)

Credit awareness in India has grown sharply, with over 183 million people now actively tracking their scores, according to CIBIL. Most platforms are built to show you your score, but don’t always help consumers improve it. Oolka (@oolka_ai) is changing that. Its AI agents read your credit profile and act on it, filing disputes, closing dormant accounts, negotiating rates, and managing EMIs. It's the equivalent of having a personal relationship manager, available to every Indian at scale. Oolka was founded by Utkrishta Kumar (@youkaey), who spent years leading business at Meesho before starting up in 2024. We're partnering with Oolka as they build from credit health to a full financial companion for every Indian. @SaSarthaksingh • #AccelFamily

Retail investors in India have come a long way. Today, millions of people are actively trading options, building strategies, and making split-second decisions. ⁠But most platforms were built for first-time investors. For the serious, active trader, that gap is felt every single day. Jumping between tabs to check charts, confirm data, and place an order, while the market moves faster than the platform can keep up. Sahi (⁠@Sahi_HQ) was built to fix exactly that as an AI-powered broking platform designed from the ground up for active traders, where charting, analysis, and execution all happen on one screen. ⁠Behind this is a founder duo that understands both sides of the problem. Dale Vaz (@dale_vaz) brings hands-on trading experience and the engineering instincts of a former CTO of Swiggy. Manish Jain (@BeingMojo) built professional trading products at Kotak Securities and understands exactly where retail traders could be served better. ⁠We’re deepening our partnership with them as they continue to shorten the distance between insight and execution for traders. Manasi Shah • #AccelFamily

Prayank Swaroop (@prayanks), Partner at Accel, was at Off The Record last week, hosted by Venture Catalysts++ (@vcatsindia) and Seligman Ventures, and shared his honest take on enterprise sales in 2026. ⁠AI product buyers have sat through hundreds of demos. They're no longer asking if your product works; they're asking where the business impact is coming from. If you can't answer that fast, you're losing deals you'd have won 18 months ago. ⁠Don't lead with the big pitch. Start with one person who finds your product indispensable. Then a team. Then a department. By the time it reaches the decision-makers, the product has already made its case. That's the path that's actually been working.

Forbes’s AI 50 List highlights the world’s most promising privately-held AI companies, judged on commercial traction, technical talent, and how seriously they've embedded AI into what they build. @AnthropicAI, @cursor_ai, @cyera_io, @DecagonAI, @GammaApp, @WeAreLegora, @Lovable, @perplexity_ai, @speak, @SynthesiaIO, and @thinkymachines made the list. In what Forbes called a highly competitive field, this is a testament to these teams’ sharp ideas and real technical depth. Read the full article: forbes.com/lists/ai50/

Read more here: moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/o…

In March 2026, foreign investors pulled out a record $13.5B from Indian markets. Ordinarily, that would have shaken the market. This time, it didn’t. 97 million Indians investing through SIPs absorbed the outflows. Monthly inflows hit an all-time high. The market held. That marks a structural shift. For decades, foreign capital set the direction of Indian markets. Today, domestic investors are setting the tone, and foreign investors are reacting to them. For the first time, Indian markets are being priced by Indians. This unlocks something powerful: a self-reinforcing cycle where domestic capital funds businesses, participates in their upside, and recycles gains into the next generation of companies. But there’s a missing piece: in the US, M&A provides a second exit path, so capital keeps moving even when IPO markets shut. In India, that pathway is weak. When IPOs slow down, liquidity dries up across the system, and the cycle slows. India has built the foundation. The next step is making that cycle durable. Alok Bathija, Partner, Corporate Development at Accel writes about this in @moneycontrolcom.

The first sale, especially to an enterprise, is a trust sale. That was one of the many sharp takeaways from a recent conversation between Jason Graefe, CVP of the AI Partner Catalyst Team at @Microsoft, and @skirani, Partner at @AccelIndia. (1/6)

The mechanics of building are speeding up. The real work is deciding what’s worth building in the first place. That was the throughline in a conversation between Shekhar Kirani (@skirani), Partner at Accel, and Jay Parikh (@jayparikh), EVP, CoreAI at @Microsoft, at GitHub Constellation, and it points to where the real advantage in AI is shifting. Three themes that got discussed: 1. The developer role is being redefined: The focus is shifting from execution to orchestration: what to build, how systems fit together, and which tools to use. The effective developer is now a systems thinker. 2. India is a key battleground for AI platforms: From OpenAI to Anthropic, Perplexity, and Microsoft, India stands out for both scale and speed of adoption. The shift to AI talent is already underway. 3. The edge is moving up the stack: As models improve, access won’t differentiate. Advantage comes from knowing where to apply AI. The winners pair model capability with deep problem understanding. Shekhar’s POV: India will produce a new wave of vertical AI companies built on hard, specific problems. The founders who break out will combine strong AI execution with real domain depth, often from firsthand experience. @github • @MicrosoftIndia • @msft4startups