Atlassian’s $50mn global venture fund to focus on Indian startups

The company which set up a research and development centre in Bengaluru last year with plans to expand it further, said it is keen to nurture India's vibrant startup ecosystem and rich technical talent pool.

Bengaluru: In a bid to tap into India’s growing startup and developer community, Australia’s leading software firm Atlassian Corporation on Monday announced the launch of Atlassian Ventures, a new $50 million global fund that will invest startups, including established companies that are already building products in its ecosystem.

The company which set up a research and development centre in Bengaluru last year with plans to expand it further, said it is keen to nurture India’s vibrant startup ecosystem and rich technical talent pool.

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“With India’s cloud market among the largest in the Asia Pacific region, we believe this fund will be an ideal opportunity for up-and-coming startups in India to access funding when building apps for our cloud products,” said Dinesh Ajmera, Site Lead and Head of Engineering, Bengaluru, Atlassian.

“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 into,” he added.

The company’s software products such as Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket and Trello are used by 174,000 customers worldwide, including Ola Cabs, Reliance, Walmart Labs, and Flipkart, to name a few.

Atlassian Ventures will invest in three types of companies.

Firstly, the early-stage startups which are building apps for any of Atlassian’s cloud products.

“Secondly, the larger, more established ecosystem product partners who are ascaling their businesses and finally, the existing sales channel partners who are looking to step up their cloud services and create new products that support the future of teamwork,” the company informed.

As part of this programme, companies that receive funding are also eligible for mentorship as well as global exposure at Atlassian events,” Ajmera said.

In July, Atlassian Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Sri Viswanath said that the company plans to hire 300 more people over the next year in addition to 200 it has recruited for the R&D facility and the support centre.

Noting that Bengaluru had some of the world’s brightest tech talent, the CTO said he was upbeat that the work done in India would help the company get 100 million monthly active users.

Atlassian has over 4,200 apps available in its Marketplace and offers integrations with popular tools like Slack, Zendesk and GitHub.