Accel-KKR

Accel-KKR

Type	Private Ownership
Industry	Private Equity
Founded	2000; 22 years ago (2000)
Headquarters	Menlo Park, California, U.S.
AUM	US$14.6 billion (2022)
Number of employees	75 (2022)
Website	www.accel-kkr.com

Accel-KKR is an American technology-focused private equity firm with over $14 billion in total assets under management. The firm invests primarily in middle-market software and technology-enabled services businesses, providing capital for buyouts and growth investments across a range of opportunities including recapitalization, divisional carve-outs, and going-private transactions. The company has offices in Menlo Park, California, (headquarters), Atlanta, Georgia (opened in 2006), Mexico City (opened in 2018), and London (opened in 2013).

History

The firm was founded in February 2000 as a partnership between the venture capital firm Accel Partners and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, one of the oldest and largest leveraged buyout firms. Since the mid-2000s, the firm has operated independently of its original backers. Today the firm is run by co-managing partners Tom Barnds and Rob Palumbo with headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Accel-KKR’s second fund closed in 2006 with over $300 million in capital commitments and its third fund closed in 2008 with $600 million, a third over its $450 million target. In 2012, the firm closed its fourth fund with $750 million, exceeding its target of $700 million.

In 2015, Accel-KKR raised $1.3 billion for its fifth buyout fund, including $100 million from the firm’s general partners, making it the largest general partner commitment to date. The fund also drew a third of its capital from outside the US.

Since the firm’s inception through 2015, Accel-KKR had reported a 32% annualized return on investment.

In May 2017, Goldman Sachs Asset Management's Petershill unit took a minority stake of less than 10% in Accel-KKR.

In 2019 and 2020, Inc. named Accel-KKR one of the “50 Best Private Equity Firms for Entrepreneurs” while the American Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand recognized the firm as “Investor of the Year from the USA” in 2019 for its investment in Seequent Ltd. Accel-KKR was also named the "2019 GP-Led Deal of The Year in the Americas" by Private Equity International in recognition of Accel-KKR Capital Partners CV III fund, which closed in September 2019.

In January 2020, Accel-KKR closed on $276.7 million in commitments for Accel-KKR Credit Partners LP – Series 1, its private lending vehicle, which targets maturing software startups whose collateral may fall short of what bank lenders require for loans. Also in 2020, the firm closed on its first fund intended specifically to invest in smaller companies. The $640 million Accel-KKR Emerging Buyout Partners LP fund is focused on software and technology companies with enterprise values of $70 million or less.

As of 2020, Accel-KKR has raised over $10 billion of investor commitments and invested in or acquired over 250 software and technology-enabled services companies, with the majority of such companies in the United States. Of those, Accel-KKR has completed 79 international transactions, including 48 in Europe, 11 in Canada, 12 in Australia/NZ/Asia-Pacific, 6 in Latin America and 2 in South Africa.

Current Portfolio Companies

Accel-KKR’s current portfolio companies include:

Selected Previous Investments