While most US venture capitalists are turning their backs on high technology, Accel Partners of Princeton and San Francisco has just closed a new $100m fund, and reckons the fund is one of the largest technology venture capital partnerships closed during 1989 – closed in this context meaning that it is not taking in any more money from investors. Accel III will fund Accel Partners’ continuing strategy of financing and developing companies that it judges to have market-expanding, proprietary technology and sound management teams, and show strong evidence of providing significant wealth creation over the next decade. International investment institutions with cash in Accel III include Chancellor Capital Management, Fleming Capital Management, St Paul Venture Capital and the State of Michigan. Despite the cloud under which technology currently cowers with investors, Accel points out that markets for technology-driven products have grown tenfold during the past 15 years and that technology has created more than $100,000m of value during the last decade, accounting for a growing percentage of gross national product in terms of real sales and earnings. Star performers backed by Accel in its six-year history are Ungermann-Bass, Network Equipment Technologies, Vitalink Communications and Medical Care International.
