Venture capital firm DCM Ventures has just completed a second round of investment to the tune of a $100 million dollars. Aptly dubbed the A-Fund II, the $100 million dollars will go towards investing in startup Android companies that the DCM group finds promising.
Founded in 2003, Android was first developed with digital cameras in mind. It’s primary founder, Andy Rubin, wanted to create an advanced operating system with geolocation capabilities. As one might expect, it was quickly found out that there is not a very big market for such an OS. Thus, the Android that we know today was born, an advanced operating system that caters to the modern smartphone.
The first Android smartphone hit the scene in October of 2008, five years after Android came to be. By this time, Android had gone through a plethora of changes within the organization. The primary one being its acquisition by Google in 2005.
After that, the rest is history. Android would quickly rise to become one of the most popular operating systems in the world. Companies that had long held the vast majority of the market share for the mobile industry were quickly taken down due to Android’s extensive features and the relatively low cost of its devices. Names such as Blackberry and Symbian, which were once household names, had lost a majority of their value in a short amount of time.
While Google was the biggest winner with the immense popularity of Android, many other entities also saw huge gains. Particularly hardware manufacturers and app developers. Samsung, HTC, Nova Launcher, and Yik Yak are only a few examples of companies and developers that have seen a huge success with Android.
The last one being a direct result of DCM Ventures first round of investment. The capital firm wishes to continue seeing Android grow and will likely see a huge return on their 100 million dollar investment, as Android shows no signs of slowing down. While it will be a while before we see any companies spring up as a result of DCM Ventures investing in Android startups, the end results are sure to be spectacular.