Quansight Futures, based in Austin, announced the launch of a new $20 million early-stage investment fund focused on open-source technology.
The fund, which is expected to be raised in the next nine months, is called Quansight Initiate and it’s focused on investing in startups in education, Internet of Things, data-management, data-science, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Travis Oliphant, founder of Anaconda, is the CEO of Quansight and founder of Quansight Futures. He has more than 20 years of experience in open-source communities.
Quansight named Bradden Blair, former Professor of Operations and Information Systems, and former Director of the MS in Information Systems and MS in Business Analytics programs at the University of Utah as the fund’s managing partner.
“In line with Quansight’s vision of strengthening the open-source ecosystem, Quansight Initiate will invest in companies that use open-source technologies as the core of their products or services,” Oliphant said in a news release. “We believe entrepreneurs who make use of the immense value available in open-source technologies will have an advantage over those who rely on proprietary solutions.”
“It is no secret that Austin is one of the fastest-growing high-tech economies in the nation,” Blair said in a news release. “The rapid pace of expansion in Austin is fueling innovation and demand for early-stage investment capital and represents an excellent opportunity for our fund. Our team brings a unique perspective to the Austin market. Many years of prior experience helping companies leverage the power of enterprise-grade open-source technology and communities will help us to successfully tap into Austin’s booming entrepreneurial community.”
Quansight Futures launched the fund with investments in Tenavox, Anaconda, AutoAuto, OpenTeams, SaveDay, FairOSS, and Vertalo.
