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Splashtop
Splashtop was founded in 2006 in San Jose by Mark Lee, Robert Ha, Thomas Deng, and Philip Sheu — four Taiwanese-American engineers who met as MIT...
Splashtop
Splashtop was founded in 2006 in San Jose by Mark Lee, Robert Ha, Thomas Deng, and Philip Sheu — four Taiwanese-American engineers who met as MIT undergraduates. Their first venture, OSA Technologies, built embedded server management firmware and sold to Avocent for $100 million in 2004. The founding team stayed intact through both companies, a continuity rare in venture-backed enterprise software. Splashtop provides remote access, remote support, and endpoint management software for IT teams and managed service providers. The product suite spans individual remote desktop, unattended support for helpdesks, and autonomous endpoint management with patch and policy tools. The firm sells direct to enterprises and through a channel of MSPs. Confirmed customers include GE and Warner Bros. International Television Production, and the firm claims 30 million total users. Geographic reach extends across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, though exact deployment figures are not public. The firm raised $49 million in venture funding across four early rounds from Storm Ventures, DFJ DragonFund, NEA, and Sapphire Ventures. In January 2021, Splashtop took its first institutional growth capital — a $50 million round led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from existing investors — pushing its valuation above $1 billion. No additional funding events or headcount changes have been disclosed since that round. Splashtop’s architecture differs from most $1B+ enterprise companies because its four founders personally operate the business together, 20 years after their first startup and without installing a hired-gun CEO. The company balances a consumer-scale user base — 30 million — against deep Fortune 500 penetration without a large funding war chest, a structural posture more common in tightly held private companies than venture-scale disruptors.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
2006
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
San Jose
Corporate office
San Jose, CA, United States
Principals
Mark Lee
Co-founder
Robert Ha
Co-founder
Thomas Deng
Co-founder
Philip Sheu
Co-founder
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Splashtop?
Splashtop is an operating company, not an investment firm. Strategic and capital-allocation decisions reside with the four co-founders — Mark Lee, Robert Ha, Thomas Deng, and Philip Sheu — who have run the company together since 2006. Their venture backers (Sapphire Ventures, Storm Ventures, NEA, DFJ DragonFund) hold board seats but operational control remains with the founding team.
How does Splashtop acquire customers?
The company sells directly to enterprise IT organizations and through a channel of managed service providers. Its flagship case studies involve large deployments at companies like GE and Warner Bros., while the MSP channel extends reach into small and mid-sized businesses. The firm also operates a self-service subscription model for individuals and teams.
Is Splashtop structured as an asset manager or an operating business?
Splashtop is an operating enterprise-software business. It is not a family office, asset manager, or investment vehicle. The four co-founders own and operate the company alongside their venture capital investors.
Does Splashtop participate in fund commitments or direct deals?
No. Splashtop is an operating company and does not make fund commitments, direct investments, or co-investments. The capital it has raised ($49 million in early-stage funding and a $50 million growth round in January 2021) was used to build and scale its product suite.
What does Splashtop's product portfolio include?
The product suite covers attended and unattended remote access, remote support for IT helpdesks, and autonomous endpoint management with patch management and policy enforcement. The company also offers an on-premises deployment option for enterprise customers under Splashtop Enterprise.
Which sectors does Splashtop target?
Splashtop's software is horizontal — it serves any organization with distributed endpoints. The firm does not publicly segment by industry vertical. Known deployments include media and entertainment (Warner Bros.), energy (Strobel Energy Group), and education (St. Joseph's School for the Deaf), along with a large managed-service-provider channel.
What is Splashtop's known posture on co-investments or acquisitions?
Splashtop has not disclosed a strategy of acquiring other companies or co-investing alongside its venture backers. The only publicly described M&A activity is the acquisition of the founders' prior company, OSA Technologies, by Avocent in 2004 — which provided the capital and track record to launch Splashtop.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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