PALO ALTO, California, May 7 /PRNewswire/ --

Accel Partners, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm, today announced the addition of Sameer Gandhi as a partner in their Palo Alto office. Sameer, who was formerly a partner at Sequoia Capital, brings ten years of venture capital investment experience across a range of stages.

In his new role with the Accel team, Sameer will help develop leading companies in the consumer Internet and the software sectors.

"Sameer's investment experience will complement our partnership and extend our capabilities in both software and the consumer internet," said Theresia Gouw Ranzetta, Partner of Accel. "We are excited to have Sameer as part of the Accel team."

"The Accel team has built a very strong position," said Sameer Gandhi. "I am looking forward to working with everyone in the group and being part of the Accel team that helps to build the firm over the coming decades."

Prior to Accel, Sameer joined Sequoia in 1998 and has been a partner leading several of their investments including Barracuda Networks, eHarmony, Gracenote (acquired by Sony), Marketlive and Sourcefire (FIRE) among others over his decade at the firm. Prior to Sequoia, Sameer was a technology banker at Broadview and a sales engineer at Oracle. Sameer has an MBA from Stanford University and a BSEE and MSEE from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

About Accel Partners

Accel was established in 1983 and is a global investment firm with offices in Palo Alto, London and China via the IDG-Accel partnership. Accel also co-manages the Accel-KKR funds focused on technology buyouts. With over US$5 billion under management, Accel has helped world-class internet and technology entrepreneurs build over 300 successful companies, many of which have become category-defining enterprises. http://www.accel.com

Web site: http://www.accel.com

Angela Azem of Accel Partners, +1-650-614-4800, aazem@accel.com