# Morgan Stanley Dean Witter

> Morgan Stanley Dean Witter is a VC fund backing Internet and Software. See 37 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: New York, United States
- Total investments: 37
- Last investment: Jan 2002
- Lead investor: 19%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- Website: http://www.morganstanley.com

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter is a VC fund in New York focused on Internet and Software. Dean Witter Reynolds was an American stock brokerage and securities firm catering to retail clients. Prior to its acquisition, it was among the largest retail firms in the securities industry with over 9,000 account executives (ranking third in the US in 1996) and was among the largest members of the New York Stock Exchange. The company served over3.2 million clients primarily in the U.S. Dean Witter provided debt and equity underwriting and brokerage as well as mutual funds and other saving and investment products for individual investors. The company's asset management arm, Dean Witter InterCapital, with total assets of $90.0 billion prior to acquisition, was one of the largest asset management operations in the U.S.In 1997, Dean Witter's parent company Dean Witter, Discover, Inc., which also owned Discover Card, merged with investment banking house Morgan Stanley to form Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. The combined firm later dropped the Dean Witter name. In 2009, the Dean Witter retail operations were transferred to Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, a joint venture with Citigroup.For many years, the company used the corporate slogan, "We measure success one investor at a time," which was later adopted by Morgan Stanley.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Shizune tracks 4 team members at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/morgan-stanley-dean-witter?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Internet | 13 | 35% |
| Software | 8 | 22% |
| Manufacturing | 5 | 14% |
| Telecommunications | 5 | 14% |
| Wireless | 4 | 11% |

55 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series C | 13 | 35% |
| Funding Round | 10 | 27% |
| Series B | 6 | 16% |
| Private Equity | 4 | 11% |
| Series A | 2 | 5% |

6 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 30 | 81% |
| United Kingdom | 2 | 5% |
| Italy | 1 | 3% |
| Canada | 1 | 3% |

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| William J. Harding | Managing Director | 2 | — |
| Bill Harding | Managing Director | 5 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bill-harding |
| James Gorman | Chairman and CEO | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/james-p-gorman |
| John Ehrenkranz | Managing Director | 0 | — |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Respond.com | Respond is an online marketplace that connects purchase-ready consumers to quality local businesses. Respond enables users to submit a single request form and get responses from up to 4 local service providers. Founded in 1998, Respond focuses on three major vertical markets: Weddings & Events, Home Services, & Financial Services.Respond has helped over 5 Million users find local sevice providers over the past decade. Respond is privately owned and operated by the TEOCO Corporation, The Employee-Owned Company. Visit Respond at www.respond.com | $45M |  | Jan 02, 2002 |  |
| Chameleon Systems | Chameleon Systems is a privately held fabless semiconductor company that designs, markets and sells programmable system-on-a-chip solutions for the communications electronics markets. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the company has developed the industry´s first reconfigurable communications processor (RCP)--an ideal solution fordata-intensive Internet, DSP, wireless basestations, voice compression, software-defined radio, and other high-performance embedded telecom and datacom applications. The Chameleon RCP solution allows data and telecom equipment vendors to create customized communications signal processors to increase performance and channel count, more quickly adapt to new requirements and standards, reduce time-to-market, lower development costs and reduce risk. | $47M | Series C | Feb 05, 2001 |  |
| NextNine | NextNine is a leader in Operational Technology (OT) security management software for industrial and critical infrastructure, markets that are vulnerable to cyber security attacks and are underserved by conventional enterprise IT solutions. Using NextNine you can have centralized OT security management for your entire SCADA/ICS environment.Distributed critical infrastructure plants and facilities with proprietary ICS/SCADA networks and devices, paired with the need for external vendors to provide remote maintenance and support, create an ideal target profile for hackers and terrorist attacks. Traditional IT security management solutions were designed to manage standard computing environments and cannot handle the proprietary processes, networks and devices of the ICS/SCADA world.In contrast, NextNine has over 10 years of leadership in OT security, and has purpose-built its product to deal with these unique challenges. NextNine’s solution is an industrial strength software platform delivering robust, customizable and field proven OT security management.Top tier critical infrastructure companies along with 5 of the 7 largest industrial vendors have standardized on NextNine. Today, the company has 6000 installations globally in fields such as oil, gas, mining, chemicals, energy, manufacturing, defense and critical infrastructure.NextNine has been recognized by the White House for its leadership in the efforts to improve critical infrastructure cyber security.NextNine has received ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification, assuring NextNine's employees operate a comprehensive security program and manage information security risks effectively. NextNine's certificate is issued by the Standards Institution of Israel.The company was founded in 1998, is privately held and headquartered in New York. | $20M | Series B | Jan 22, 2001 |  |
| Netscalibur Italia | Netscalibur Italia provides IP manged services. |  |  | Jan 18, 2001 |  |
| PortalPlayer | PortalPlayer is a fabless semiconductor company that designs, develops and markets comprehensive platform solutions, including a system-on-chip, firmware and software, for manufacturers of feature-rich, hard disk drive-based personal media players. | $22M | Series C | Jan 05, 2001 |  |
| Silicon Access Networks | Silicon Access Networks is a provider of an ultra-high performance chipsets for terabit routers and communication silicon to the networking and telecommunications market. | $56M | Series C | Oct 03, 2000 |  |
| Nexant | Nexant is a provider of intelligent grid software and clean energy solutions—pioneering, developing, and advancing electric power grid and alternative energy technologies and services. Their exclusive focus on energy, combined with their well-respected and experienced professionals, proven technology, and proprietary industry information, hasearned them distinctive brand recognition and a reputation as a top energy solutions company. | $15M | Series A | Sep 28, 2000 |  |
| Novalux | Novalux develops, manufactures, and distributes laser systems. The company offers Novalux Extended Cavity Surface Emitting Laser, a surface-emitting semiconductor laser. Its products are used in various applications, such as projection display, specialty lighting, neon sign alternative lighting, and automotive lighting. The company was founded in1998 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. As of January 8, 2008, Novalux, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Arasor International Limited. | $109M | Series C | Sep 26, 2000 |  |
| Hyperchip | Hyperchip (www.Hyperchip.com) is the Petabit Routing Company. Founded in 1997, Hyperchip is a privately held company funded by Siemens, Argo Global Capital (backed by the worlds leading telcos) and TechnoCap, Montreal's leading net-focused venture fund. The company is headquartered in Montreal. All financial figures included in thispress release are cited in Canadian dollars. Hyperchip and the Petabit Routing Company are trademarks of Hyperchip Inc. Other trademarks identified in this release are the property of their respective companies. | $65M | Series C | Sep 01, 2000 |  |
| @link Networks | @Link Networks provides small- and medium-sized businesses with secure, high-speed private networks. | $101.2M | Series B | Aug 15, 2000 |  |

10 of 37 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Goldman Sachs](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/goldman-sachs) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [TCV](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/technology-crossover-ventures) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Amerindo Investment Advisors](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/amerindo-investment-advisors) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Chase Capital Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/chase-capital-partners) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- Comdisco Ventures — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [First Union Corporation](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/first-union-corporation) — VC Fund, 3 deals together

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
- [Sequoia Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sequoia-capital) — VC Fund
- [New Enterprise Associates](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/new-enterprise-associates) — VC Fund
- [Bessemer Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bessemer-venture-partners) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does Morgan Stanley Dean Witter invest in?

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter invests primarily in Internet, Software and Manufacturing startups, most often at Series C and Funding Round stage. Most of the 37 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### How do I contact Morgan Stanley Dean Witter?

Public channels for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter include the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### Who are the partners at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter?

The team at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter includes William J. Harding (Managing Director), Bill Harding (Managing Director) and James Gorman (Chairman and CEO). The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

# About Shizune
Shizune.co is an investor database. Core features:
- 48,091 startup investors (angels, VCs, accelerators, and others)
- Email, phone, LinkedIn (for intros), socials, and other contact data
- Updated daily from public funding news
- CSV and Excel export

The User can access the full database FOR FREE after signing up: shizune.co