Accel has closed a $3.5 billion fundraise to support early-stage startups, unveiling its ninth India fund worth $550 million. The capital is structured across four investment vehicles: a $1.35 billion global expansion fund, $800 million each for the US and Europe-Israel, and $550 million for India. The firm has previously backed AI startups including Anthropic, Perplexity and Cursor. Accel's ninth India fund will focus on AI-native startups while continuing to invest across software, consumer internet, fintech and emerging technology sectors. According to Partner Harry Nelis, startups today are raising larger amounts of capital earlier in their lifecycle. The new India fund is slightly smaller than its predecessor, while Accel increased the size of its US and Europe funds from $650 million to $800 million. Accel's investment strategy has expanded beyond traditional software into advanced manufacturing, material science and scientific research-driven startups. Among recent bets, Accel participated in a $300 million seed funding round for AI scientific-discovery startup Periodic Labs, valued at $1.3 billion.