Atlassian is launching a $50 million venture fund to help fund early-stage developer and collaboration startups during this 'tough environment'
Atlassian is launching a new corporate venture arm to help early-stage developer startups grow, even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
On Wednesday Atlassian announced a $50 million fund called Atlassian Ventures which will focus on investing in early-stage developer startups and Atlassian partners that are scaling their businesses or creating new work apps. In some cases, the new fund will partner with traditional venture capital firms, though it will also make solo investments in startups that have never before received funding, Atlassian's head of corporate development, Chris Hecht, told Business Insider.
"We're making sure developers have a great mechanism by which they can grow on our platform," Hecht said.
As the coronavirus pandemic pummels many businesses, Atlassian wanted to "put our money where our mouth is and help build" in a "tough environment," Hecht said, noting that Atlassian Venture has set up an application process for startups that would like to raise funding from it.
This isn't Atlassian's first foray into investing: It has previously invested in companies like InVision, Slack, and Zoom. Most recently, it funded Split.io, and Hecht says that Atlassian hopes to invest in similar startups that are earlier stage and that build products that help customers work together better.
"We realize there's a great opportunity to really solidify our investment strategy," Hecht said. "When we started thinking about our ecosystem and the opportunities we have, we felt like there's a meaningful opportunity to thrive."
By funding startups, Atlassian can also grow its marketplace and integrations with other apps, Hecht says.
"It really helps drive that successful ecosystem we think is critical to our growth," Hecht said. "What's going on with COVID only gave us more conviction to do this."
Atlassian hopes that by investing in cloud-first startups that help its customers collaborate and get work done, it can also drive additional sponsorships and investments in integrations for its tools. Hecht says: "We see a need and want from our customers for our tools to work cohesively together."
