Dell Makes An Impact –

NEW YORK – Impact Venture Management, a new venture firm founded by Adam Dell, recently held a $100 million close on Impact Venture Partners LP.

Dell, a former partner at Crosspoint Venture Partners and the brother of Dell Computers’ Michael Dell, created the vehicle to back early-stage e-commerce business-to-business companies in the Northeast, a market he considers under-served by the venture capital community.

Dell began raising the fund late last year and at press time had already invested some $30 million in 12 companies, such as The National Transportation Exchange Inc., Buzzsaw.com Inc., Opus360 Corp. and HotJobs.com Ltd. Typical investments range from $2 million to $5 million.

“Crosspoint’s position and success in the marketplace absolutely helped raise the fund,” Dell said, adding that the partners at Crosspoint introduced him to a number of Impact’s limited partners. “John Mumford [a founder of Crosspoint] was a supporter from the day I mentioned my desire to form Impact,” he said.

Impact has already co-invested with Crosspoint, as well Benchmark Capital, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Accel Partners, and will continue to do so, Dell said. Crosspoint generally backs seed- and early-stage digital communications services, e-business services and software in the Western United States.

Limited partners in the fund include Frank Quattrone, managing director for the Investment Banking Group at Credit Suisse First Boston, MSD Capital, FLAG Ventures, as well as Crosspoint’s Mumford and Dell.

The firm works with an advisory board comprised of entrepreneurs, industry experts and experienced executives, including Mumford, Roger McNamee of Integral Capital, Carl Bass, chief executive officer at Buzzsaw.com, and Jeff Blackburn, vice president of business development at Amazon.com Inc. The advisory board assists with handling back office administrative issues.

Dell intends to hire a general partner, a venture associate, a chief financial officer and a chief technology officer by the end of the second quarter 2000, according to the firm. -A.L.