ConnectWise Preps $25M Fund To Invest In Vendor Partner Integration
ConnectWise Capital, the financial arm of ConnectWise, has built a $10 million fund, that will grow to $25 million, for investing in technology integration efforts and companies that expand the ConnectWise ecosystem.
ConnectWise CEO Arnie Bellini unveiled the program during this week's ConnectWise IT Nation conference in Orlando, Fla.
The fund, as yet unnamed, has $10 million now, but is expected to grow to $25 million, Bellini said at an IT Nation press conference. "Our idea is, give us your ideas, and we'll be an angel investor for it," he said.
The funds will be used specifically for the ConnectWise ecosystem, Bellini said, so "anybody could use it if their ideas qualify.
"I don't want to make it sound like Shark Tank. But send us your ideas, and we're gonna vet them. [But we're] not going to throw money at any idea that walks through the door."
ConnectWise has just started the program, and no money has been invested so far. "The idea is to just get things connected," Bellini told CRN. "Let's just get everything connected. You'd be surprised at what people can do with small amounts of angel investment. We don't necessarily want to take an equity stake … Just like any business arrangement, that could happen. But the idea is to get this ecosystem connected."
"We look to our tools being integrated with ConnectWise," said Joe Moore, CTO and partner at the Center for Computer Resources, a Sterling Height, Mich.-based MSP. "It it's not integrated, it's harder to use."
Moore's colleague, CEO Curtis Hicks, amplified the point: "I don't want to always reach direct to the vendor. I want them on ConnectWise. Like I told Bellini years ago, if it's not on ConnectWise, it didn't happen."
"The ConnectWise platform gets more powerful if vendors can integrate faster. It's important for us that vendors integrate with ConnectWise," said Jeff Rolen, service manager at Infinity, a Savannah, Ga. MSP. "For MSPs, this will make it harder to leave ConnectWise," he said.