Dell Closed 81 Investments Deals on Startups in Six Years

Emma Okonji in Las Vegas, US

Dell Technologies, which provides the essential infrastructure for organisations to build digital future, transform Information Technology (IT) and protect information, on Monday, disclosed that since 2012, Dell Technologies Capital, the company’s venture arm, made 81 investments focused on early-stage startups that span a broad range of technology areas across the world, including Africa.

In Nigeria, efforts have been made by government agencies and private sector organisations to promote young startups with brilliant ideas that could address societal needs.
The disclosure on investments deal was made during the opening ceremony of the Dell Technologies World 2018 in Las Vega, US.

Dell Technologies Chairman and CEO, Michael Dell, who kicked off the industry premier event, which was attended by over 14,000 visitors, said the Dell Technologies businesses would continue to play a fundamental role in helping organisations envision and realise their digital future.

“In the past year, a third of new investments focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) and the remaining investments focused on security, next-gen infrastructure and other technology areas strategic to the Dell Technologies family of companies,” Dell said.

“When the first calendar quarter 2018 industry market share numbers are final, we expect to increase our worldwide PC market share for the 21st consecutive quarter, and gain share in servers and storage. We have exciting announcements planned across our portfolio at this year’s event that are driving this leadership and our customers’ digital transformation, ultimately resulting in better business outcomes,” he added.
According to him, “Dell Technologies World is our opportunity to share our vision of technology as the driver of human progress in every corner of the world.

“We will showcase ways, big and small, our customers are using technology to change the world for the better, whether through a reimagined process or a reimagined industry. We talk often about technology solving our greatest challenges, and we’re making more progress more quickly than ever before.”

Dell’s IPOs had a collective market valuation exceeding $11 billion, highlighting the team’s ability to identify early investment opportunities and to help build successful startups. The Dell Technologies Capital portfolio includes several startups currently experiencing growth rates of more than 100 per cent and several exceeding $50 million in revenue.

President of Dell Technologies Capital, Scott Darling, said: “Since coming out of stealth at Dell EMC World last year, we’ve had a very busy, and very successful, year. We are delighted with our continued strong performance and the market reception to the Docusign, MongoDB and Zscaler IPOs. The real value we bring to Dell Technologies and our startup portfolio companies is through our joint work, which allows us to deliver best-of-breed solutions for our customers faster, especially in emerging tech areas, which the Nigerian technology market belongs to.”

The Dell Technologies Capital investment team is comprised of experienced industry professionals with a strong mix of both operational and investment expertise, providing not only the insight to identify promising technologies and teams but also the knowledge and skill to help their portfolio companies achieve scale. The team focuses on early- stage investments in several emerging technology areas including Internet of Things (IoT), AI, ML, developer-led Infrastructure, next-gen infrastructure, server-less computing and security.

Related Articles