Michael Dell taps personal piggy bank for Eagle Eye investment

Vendor founder ploughs a 'multimillion-dollar' sum into cloud-based video management outfit

Michael Dell has made a "multimillion-dollar" investment in video surveillance firm Eagle Eye Networks.

MSD Capital – the private investment vehicle of the Dell family – participated in a Series B funding round in which the video management system (VMS) player raised an unspecified amount of cash. Also chipping in were local venture capital player Austin Ventures, and Enrique Salem, former chief executive of Symantec.

Dell and Dean Drako – Eagle Eye Networks CEO and founder and former boss of Barracuda Networks – paid tribute to each other's credentials.

"I was greatly impressed with Dean Drako's execution as founder and long-time CEO of Barracuda Networks" said Dell. "Eagle Eye Networks will bring tremendous advances in video surveillance with a 100 per cent cloud-managed system that meets rigorous security requirements. Cloud technology is transforming the video surveillance industry, with broad applications spanning both security and business operations."

Drako added that his latest, and most high-profile investor, "continues to be at the top of his game in driving technology innovation".

"Eagle Eye Networks is enabling its resellers and end users to deploy one video management system which can support and adapt to their business needs across all applications," he added. "Michael brings valuable insights as we accelerate our deployment, channel programme, and sales of our Eagle Eye Security Camera VMS."

Based in Austin, Texas, Eagle Eye was founded in 2012 by Drako. Its flagship product is the Security Camera VMS cloud-based storage and management platform. It also sells a range of bridges and video recorders, as well as mobile apps.