IBM Offers New Technology, Sales and Marketing Resources to Venture-Backed Start Ups

IBM Offers New Technology, Sales and Marketing Resources to Venture-Backed Start Ups

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a new initiative to help spur innovation in the marketplace with the venture capital (VC) community. As part of the new program, IBM will provide venture capital firms and their portfolio companies with unprecedented access to its worldwide Innovation Centers to help co-develop leading-edge technology solutions.

IBM will also offer technology, sales, and marketing resources to help VC-backed start ups worldwide go to market faster with tailored technology support at 30-plus IBM Innovation Centers, allowing the companies to reduce development costs of advanced and emerging technologies such as virtualization, security, service-oriented architecture (SOA), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), blade servers, POWER architecture, Web 2.0, and wireless.

“IBM is at the center of innovation and this effort is evidence of IBM’s continued commitment to helping small companies gain access to IBM’s specialized expertise, hardware, software, and global marketing and sales teams,” said Kevin Fong, managing director, Mayfield Fund. “IBM is playing a significant role in the market with its forward-thinking approach to accelerating the pace of innovation. Access to IBM technology and expertise at no charge offers an invaluable advantage to our portfolio companies, saving them money and enabling them to speed their solution to market.”

The combination of IBM’s technical and business expertise, with the increased funding by the venture capital community, creates a tremendous opportunity for IBM, VCs, and a new generation of technology companies to direct the future of the industry. By exchanging ideas and information, venture capital partners, IBM, and start ups will gain technology and business insight into specific directions that technology is likely to take, allowing high potential portfolio companies to develop their solutions faster and at a lower cost.

Read the complete Press Release