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Accel investor Akhilesh Agarwal passes away

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Accel is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage startups

Akhilesh Agarwal, an Accel investor focused on pre-seed and seed deals, has passed away

Agarwal was the fourth loss for the Indian startup ecosystem this year, after three other founders

Akhilesh Agarwal, an investor at Accel, has passed away.
He focused on pre-seed and seed stage investments.
Agarwal joined Accel in October 2025 and helped invest in spacetech startup QOSMIC.
He started his career as a business development associate after an engineering degree in electronics from Bengaluru.
He worked at Goldman Sachs and fintech startup Klub before entering venture capital.
Agarwal entered VC in 2021 as assistant vice president at pi Ventures, leading investments in early-stage ventures like Ottonomy.
He later worked at Blume Ventures, leading investments in deeptech startups iDO Devices, Mave Health, and Optimized ElectroTech.
He was also an angel investor in startups including GalaxEye, Ethereal Exploration Guild, Sarla Aviation, Serendipity Space, Leumas, BioCompute, and Mave.

Agarwal's passing is the fourth such loss for the Indian startup ecosystem this year.
Earlier losses include Unnati Agri cofounder Ashok Prasad, Xpedize cofounder Regan Mithani, and Icertis cofounder Samir Bodas.
Ottonomy cofounder Ritukar Vijay said Agarwal was the first to believe in the startup in 2020 and scouted at pi Ventures leading to the seed round.
Metvy founder Shawrya Mehrotra called Agarwal a friend and mentor.
The VC Fellowship praised Agarwal's generosity in mentorship and commitment to founders and India's deeptech ecosystem.

Accel is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage startups.
The firm has backed many Indian startups across sectors.
Accel's portfolio includes companies like ZopSmart, BlueStone, Capillary, Uniqode, Ninjacart, GreyOrange, and Hyperverge.
The firm also coauthored a book titled 'Down But Not Out' with HarperCollins, launched in June 2026.
The book contains stories of 10 founders from Accel's portfolio who overcame challenges.

Akhilesh Agarwal (investor) — Focused on pre-seed and seed stage investments at Accel, previously at pi Ventures and Blume Ventures.