The fund focuses on two areas: AI and Bharat. Bharat includes middle-income households in Tier 2, Tier 3, and rural India.
For the AI cohort, Accel is looking for startups by visionary Indian-origin founders based anywhere in the world building companies that are using AI innovatively for business applications or building development tools for the AI ecosystem.
This includes companies building compelling use cases across the AI stack: from the foundational layer (small language models on the edge, data & models for modalities like video & robotics, and more) to the infrastructure layer (testing tools & frameworks, securing complex LLM-powered systems, etc.) and application layer (core AI models & agents across use cases).
For the Bharat cohort, Accel is looking to back founders building for Bharat across sectors.
The global VC fund is looking at emerging e-commerce companies (building efficient supply chains and/or the right customer experience); financial services startups targeting individuals or businesses in Bharat; healthcare platforms and solutions making healthcare accessible and affordable; ed-tech, upskilling and recruitment platforms; OTT and content platforms; and emerging Bharat-first brands.
The Bharat and AI cohorts will be led by Anand Daniel and Prayank Swaroop respectively.
“The Accel Atoms 4.0 AI cohort will have personalised 1-on-1 mentorship from global AI leaders of the Indian diaspora, and Accel’s network of AI founders and senior level operators.” said Prayank Swaroop, Partner at Accel.
Accel Atoms 4.0 will be open for applications from September 16th, 2024. Applications for Bharat only focused startups for Accel Atoms 4.0, can also be submitted through the Startup India website of the government.
