Dell venture arm makes mark here
Dell Technologies Capital has funded some 90 early-stage startups.
Austin cybersecurity startup Jask is reaping the benefits of Dell Technologies’ corporate capital venture arm, and other companies like it might soon have the same chance.
Dell Technologies Capital, the venture arm of Round Rock-based Dell Technologies, has invested in nearly 90 early-stage startups and completed more than 37 successful exits, including “unicorn” IPOs DocuSign, MongoDB and Zscaler, each valued at more than $1 billion.
“There’s so much innovation in so many places that you really have to be embedded in that innovation,” Scott Darling, president of Dell Technologies Capital, said about the decision to create the combined venture capital arm.
Darling previously led EMC Corporate Development and Ventures. The combined venture arm, Dell Technologies Capital, was created when Dell acquired EMC in a $67 billion deal in 2016.
Dell Technologies Capital frequently invests in areas such as storage, security, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
The firm considers 500 to 700 companies each year, with that list then narrowed to roughly 30 to 40 companies, Darling said.
Dell Technologies Capital has already found success in Austin.
The firm invested in Jask, an artificial intelligence-powered
cybersecurity firm that announced it would open a second headquarters in Austin last year.
According to Jask CEO Greg Martin, Dell led Jask’s $12 million Series A funding round with an investment of roughly $9 million.
“They’re just incredibly helpful,” Martin said of Dell Technologies Capital. “There’s a lot of avenues if you’re in the enterprise software space to be able to work with Dell to either sell to them or through them as a partner with Dell.”
Jask already had plans to move its second headquarters to Austin, but Dell made growth in the city possible. The company plans to hire 80 people in Austin in the next six to eight months, according to Martin. Currently, there are about 100 employees in the company, and roughly 60 percent of them are in Austin.
“Dell made a huge impact,” Martin said. “They essentially allowed us to get up to 100 employees.”
Amber Gunst, interim CEO of the Austin Technology Council, said Jask is the only Austin company that has announced an investment made by Dell’s venture arm so far, but said she expects Dell’s firm and others like it to make an impact in Austin down the road.
“Seeing more of that investment in early stage companies gives an opportunity for Austin to grow and for companies to get past that early stage and become established,” Gunst said, adding that it can give startups a longer life cycle.
Investment dollars are a boon for the local economy, Gunst said.
“It brings in more people; it provides more training opportunities,” she said.
While Dell Technologies Capital is a global endeavor, Darling said the firm pays attention to Austin.
“There’s a risk-taking cul- ture where people are willing
to gamble and go for the big payoffs,” Darling said. “Austin is definitely one of the hubs where anything is possible.”