August Capital was founded in 1995 by David Marquardt and John Johnston, both spinning out of Technology Venture Investors, the firm Marquardt had co-founded in 1980 that became the sole institutional investor in Microsoft - a bet that put Marquardt on Microsoft's board for 33 consecutive years. That extraordinary pattern-recognition carried directly into August Capital's focus on enterprise IT infrastructure, data center technology, systems management, security, storage, and cloud computing, closing a $100 million debut fund and backing companies through every phase of the entrepreneurial process from seed investments to public offerings. The firm's portfolio has included Splunk, Compaq, Adaptec, Zulily, and Grand Junction Networks (acquired by Cisco), and August Capital now manages approximately $2 billion.
Splunk's NASDAQ IPO under ticker SPLK - an August Capital-era portfolio company; co-founder David Marquardt's pre-firm track record includes an even bigger story: Technology Venture Investors was the sole institutional investor in Microsoft, where Marquardt served on the board for 33 years