Which VC firm led Facebook's $12.7 million Series A round in 2005?

Accel Partners led Facebook’s $12.7 million Series A round in 2005.

The investment was agreed in April 2005, roughly a year after Mark Zuckerberg launched thefacebook.com from Harvard. The round valued Facebook at about $98 million and supplied the capital needed to expand beyond its initial university-focused audience, hire staff, and build the infrastructure for rapid growth.

Jim Breyer, an Accel partner, became a major Facebook board figure after the investment. Peter Thiel was also an early investor and held a board seat, but his participation does not make Sequoia the Series A lead. That distinction is the source of a frequent quiz mistake.

Facebook’s 2005 financing preceded its expansion to high schools and later to workplaces and the general public. Accel’s early stake became extraordinarily valuable after Facebook’s growth and eventual public offering. Facebook ultimately went public in 2012, raising about $16 billion in one of the largest technology IPOs at the time.