The Silicon Valley venture capitalists are setting their sights East, thanks to the boom in the city's tech entrepreneurial scene, it said in a statement yesterday.
"The multistage investment opportunities in New York over the next decade or two are very significant," said Jim Breyer, a partner at Accel, noting he has been spending a number of days each month in the Big Apple, adding that it was time to have some more permanent digs.
Twenty-eight year old Accel rented an office in Union Square, which will be used for visiting employees, but it has plans to hire permanent staff.
"Over the next couple of years we plan to invest tens of millions if not hundreds of millions in New York tech companies," Breyer said.
Accel manages more than $6 billion globally and has offices in Bangalore, New Delhi, Shanghai, Beijing, London and Silicon Valley.
In April 2005, Breyer masterminded a $12.7 million investment into Facebook, well before it was the more than 500-million-user social-networking leader that it is today, with an estimated market value of about $50 billion.
The company has made similar early-stage investments in New York startups, including Etsy.com, Diapers.com, Squarespace, SalesCrunch and Bonobos.
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