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Dell Ventures to spend $ 300 Milllion for innovation
NEW DELHI: Dell Ventures, Dell’s strategic investment arm, has announced an expanded commitment to entrepreneurship and innovation with a $300 million Strategic Innovation Venture Fund. The fund will enable Dell to invest in early-to-growth-stage companies in emerging technology areas including storage, cloud computing, big data, next-generation data center, security and mobility.
Earlier, Dell made major investment fund on the $60 million Dell Fluid Data Storage Fund announced last year. Since then, Dell has completed road shows to meet with entrepreneurs and VCs in Silicon Valley, Boston and Israel, reviewed hundreds of companies and invested in numerous startups that have contributed to Dell’s storage and end-to-end solutions innovation.
As the global business environment evolves and customers are increasingly challenged by the pace of change with virtualisation, cloud computing, big data and mobility, Dell is expanding its venture investments to new areas of IT innovation.
“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,” said Dell Chief Financial Officer Brian Gladden in a release. “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.”
The Dell Ventures model is to co-invest with venture capitalists and other strategic investors, acting as a board advisor and making the full breadth of Dell resources available to the portfolio company. These resources include technical and business counsel, as well as access to brand scale, OEM solutions, channel and go-to-market relationships.
In addition to equipping startups with resources through Dell Ventures, Dell provides entrepreneurs an access to the technology, financing, networks and knowledge that they need to turn a great idea into a successful, growing business through the Dell Center for Entrepreneurs.
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UK’s OnlyFans seeks US investor at $3bn valuation after owner’s death
The adult video platform is seeking stability after the death of its billionaire owner
LONDON: OnlyFans is looking for a new partner. The London-based adult video platform is in advanced talks to sell a minority stake of less than 20 per cent to Architect Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm, in a deal that would value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).
The move is driven by an urgent need for stability. Leonid Radvinsky, the Ukrainian-American billionaire who owned OnlyFans, died of cancer last month at the age of 43, leaving the future of one of Britain’s most profitable privately held businesses suddenly uncertain.
The choice of Architect Capital is not arbitrary. The firm has deep expertise in financial services, which aligns neatly with OnlyFans’ ambitions to offer banking products to its creators, many of whom have long struggled to access basic financial services because of the nature of their work.
The numbers behind OnlyFans are, by any measure, staggering. The platform posted revenues of $1.4bn in the year to 30th November 2024, with a pre-tax profit of $684m, up four per cent on the prior year. Payments to creators totalled $7.2bn over the same period, a rise of nearly ten per cent. Radvinsky personally collected $701m in dividends from the business in 2024 alone, on top of more than $1bn in such payments he had already received. The platform, run through its parent company Felix International, hosts 4.6m creator accounts, with performers keeping 80 per cent of subscription proceeds and the platform pocketing the remaining 20 per cent. It has 377m fan accounts in total.
The current minority stake talks represent a notable scaling back of ambitions. In January, OnlyFans was reported to be in discussions with Architect about selling a majority stake of 60 per cent. Before that, the company had explored a sale to a consortium led by Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm. Neither deal materialised.
OnlyFans has built an enormously lucrative business on content that mainstream finance has long refused to touch. Now, with its owner gone and a $3bn valuation on the table, it is looking for the kind of respectable institutional backing that might finally persuade the banks to take its calls.
