Personnel shifts at Accel-KKR as firm launches sixth flagship fund

Two senior-level executives at Accel-KKR are changing their roles as the firm kicks off fundraising for its sixth flagship pool, sources told Buyouts.

Managing Director Joe Savig has left the firm, sources said. It’s not clear why he departed. Savig joined the firm in 2007, prior to which he worked at Graham Partners, according to his LinkedIn profile. For the past two years, Savig has been investing the firm’s balance sheet capital, as opposed to investing external fund capital, a source said.

Meanwhile, Managing Director Jason Klein, who has been at Accel-KKR since its debut fund, is staying with the firm but moving into a non-investing partner role, one of the sources said. Klein will primarily be involved in working with the 11 portfolio companies on whose boards he sits as the firm monetizes those investments, one of the sources said.

Klein will not be significantly involved in new investments made by the new fund, one of the sources said.

Klein joined Accel-KKR in 2005, prior to which he worked at Goldman Sachs, according to his LinkedIn profile. His investments at Accel-KKR include I-Med, IntegriChain, Jaggaer, Kerridge Commercial Systems, Paymentus and Smart Communications, according to the firm’s website.

The firm, meanwhile, promoted three people to managing director over the past year: Samantha Shows, who focuses on credit investments; Rachel Spasser, who is a managing director in the firm’s consulting group; and Clara Yee, chief financial officer.

Accel-KKR was formed in 2000 as a partnership between KKR and venture capital firm Accel Partners. By the mid-2000s, Accel-KKR was operating as an independent entity. It officially started raising its sixth fund last month with a target of $2 billion, sources said.

Its fifth fund, Accel-KKR Capital Partners V, closed on about $1.3 billion in 2015. That pool was generating a 5.5 percent internal rate of return and a 1.05x total value to paid-in multiple as of Sept. 30, 2018, according to performance data from the Florida State Board of Administration, which is a limited partner in the fund.

Across its funds, Accel-KKR has reported an annualized 32 percent return over 18 years, a source previously told Buyouts.

The firm closed its third growth fund on $650 million in August, a source said. Fund III had originally targeted $500 million, Buyouts previously reported.

Accel-KKR is considering running a secondary process on its 2008, third fund, which has three remaining companies, Buyouts previously reported. Fund III closed on $600 million in 2008 and still has about $500 million of remaining net asset value, sources told Buyouts in previous interviews.

Update: This story was updated to include information about the final close of Growth Fund III and more information about Joe Savig’s role at the firm. 

Action Item: Check out Accel-KKR’s Form ADV: https://bit.ly/2OMZtPI