Atlassian and the maker of Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket and Trello products, has announced the launch of Atlassian Ventures — a new $50 million fund to invest into the up-and-coming startups. This would include the established companies that are building products in the overall Atlassian ecosystem.
The company which set up its world-class research and development centre in Bangalore last year and with plans to expand it further is keen to interest India’s vibrant startup ecosystem and rich technical talent pool.
Atlassian Ventures has been established to support cloud-based products, and services will now invest in three types of companies. Firstly — the early-stage startups, who are building apps for any of Atlassian’s cloud products, whether it be – Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket or Trello. Secondly — the larger, more established ecosystem product partners scaling their businesses. These investments will be made in partnership with institutional investors and will generally target series A onwards. And thirdly — the existing sales channel partners looking to step up their cloud services and create new products that support the future of teamwork.
On the company being extremely bullish about the India market, Dinesh Ajmera, the site lead and the head of engineering, Bengaluru, Atlassian said, “Atlassian Ventures is a global program to support cloud-based products and services and unleash the potential of teams all over the world.”
With India’s cloud market among the largest in the Asia Pacific region, it has been believed this fund will be an ideal opportunity for up-and-coming startups in India to access funding when building apps for our cloud products. India is a significant market for Atlassian, one that’s teeming with an extraordinary developer community and a vibrant startup ecosystem that we plan to tap in.
“We have kept the applications open to our existing marketplace partners and developers, as well as new-to-Atlassian app developers who are looking for the first funding for their startups. As part of this program, companies that receive funding are also eligible for mentorship as well as global exposure at Atlassian events,” he further added.
As more and more customers transition to Atlassian’s cloud products, the company is committed to supporting their journey by fostering a robust ecosystem of cloud-based apps that enhance their experience and satisfy all use cases. Currently, Atlassian has 4,200+ apps already available in its marketplace and offers integrations with popular tools like Slack, Zendesk, and GitHub.
To further consolidate its offerings and capabilities, the company has recently acquired a slew of companies in the ecosystem, which include Code Barrel, the company behind Automation for Jira; Mindville and Halp, the creator of Slack. Atlassian serves more than 174,000 customers worldwide and has been named a “Best Place to Work” by Great Place to Work Institute in every market where they have a staff presence.