Abstract. Let A be a locally convex, unital topological algebra whose group of units A × is open and such that inversion ι :Then inversion is analytic, and thus A × is an analytic Lie group. We show that if A is sequentially complete (or, more generally, Mackey complete), then A × has a locally diffeomorphic exponential function and multiplication is given locally by the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff series. In contrast, for suitable non-Mackey complete A, the unit group A × is an analytic Lie group without a globally defined exponential function. We also discuss generalizations in the setting of "convenient differential calculus", and describe various examples.