Dell Ventures, Dell’s strategic investment arm, has ramped up its commitment to corporate venturing by establishing a $300m Strategic Innovation Venture Fund. The new fund incorporates Dell’s existing $60m Dell Fluid Data Storage Fund – established in 2012 – while the scope of investments, as well as the existing focus on storage, has been broadened to include cloud computing, big data, data centres, security and mobility.
The fund is headed by Jim Lussier, Managing Director of Dell Ventures, who joined Dell two years from Norwest Venture Partners. Lussier told Global Corporate Venturing that the fund would be looking to write cheques of between $2m and $15m, or more, and that the sweet spot for investments would be the B, C and D series rounds.
Dell is undergoing a transformation, from a computer hardware company to an end-to-end solutions provider, and the new fund has a remit to help Dell move forward in strategic areas. Commenting on the increase in size of the Dell Ventures fund, Lussier said: “This increase will allow us to bring the power of Dell to more entrepreneurs and help us accelerate our end-to-end solution strategy.”
Brian Gladden, Dell chief financial officer, added: “Dell is committed to bringing the most innovative, affordable and easy to manage technology solutions to our customers. To accomplish this, we will aggressively pursue organic investment in R&D, acquisitions and venture investing. The expansion of our venture investing will allow us to stay at the forefront of innovation for our customers, and support the entrepreneurs who are helping shape the future of IT.”
Dell’s publicly disclosed investments so far include openstack, cloud software company Mirantis, for which Dell joined Intel in a $10m investment round in January 2013, and flash storage startup Skyera, for which Dell led a $51.6m second round of funding in February 2013.