DELL TO PUT $100 MILLION A YEAR INTO STARTUPS
Company to invest $100 million a year via new venture capital arm.
After making investments in stealth mode in recent years, Dell Technologies has unveiled its new venture capital arm and announced plans to invest $100 million a year in startups.
Dell Technologies Capital is the result of combining the venture capital operations from its predecessor companies, computer maker Dell Inc. and data storage firm EMC Corp.
Dell also disclosed a portfolio of 70 existing and prior investments made by both operations. Some, such as Arista Networks, which went public in 2014, were not previously disclosed.
The company made the announcement during this week’s Dell EMC World conference in Las Vegas.
Before Dell acquired EMC in 2016 in a $58 billion merger, both companies maintained venture capital operations — Dell Ventures and EMC Ventures.
The two groups operated differently and had different structures. Now, Dell Technologies Capital will operate along similar lines to EMC’s venture capital operation, making investments of $3 million to $10 million in both early- and later-stage startups.
“We’ve been making these investments in stealth mode for a number of years and are accelerating our pace of investments,” said Scott Darling, pres-
ident of Dell Technologies Capital.
Darling previously headed EMC Ventures, which invested capital held on EMC’s balance sheet. Dell Ventures, meanwhile, invested from specifically created funds.
For Dell, the new venture capital arm is a way to keep up with emerging technology and team up with those leading the way.
“We have a fundamental understanding of what promising young companies need to change the world,” founder and CEO Michael Dell said in a written statement. “We provide the resources, scale and expertise to help them continue innovating and maximize their potential.”
Darling said Dell Technologies Capital will invest in companies that the company may eventually want to acquire, as well as startups that help the broader data center ecosystem.
The investments will cover a broad swath of technology — as long as it falls under the category “infrastructure,” Darling said. That includes data storage, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and analytics. He said it’s important to stay focused on areas where his team has know-how and experience.
“We’re trying to be very active in the places we’re domain experts — not get distracted,” Darling said.