Anaconda Launches Dividend Program to Give Back to Open-Source Community

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 28, 2020 — Anaconda, Inc., provider of the world’s most popular data science platform, today announced the launch of its Anaconda Dividend Program. The Anaconda Dividend is a formal initiative designed to donate a portion of Anaconda’s revenue to open-source organizations and projects that help advance innovation in data science. The program is being launched in partnership with NumFOCUS, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting open-source projects for scientific computing.

The program will have initial seed funding of $10,000, which will be disbursed to various projects and programs under the NumFOCUS umbrella, with particular focus on initiatives that are under-resourced or need to increase diversity. Moving forward, the Anaconda Dividend will be funded through earnings generated by Anaconda’s paid product offerings, including its recently-launched Commercial Edition—a commercial-grade, SLA-backed version of the company’s well-known repository of curated open-source packages and metadata. A dividend of at least 1% of commercial revenue is planned for 2021.

“Open source is in our DNA at Anaconda, and it occupies a critical place in today’s technology landscape, driving innovation at a pace proprietary software could never match. Virtually every industry benefits from open-source software, but there aren’t ready mechanisms for commercial users to cultivate investment in the community,” said Peter Wang, CEO and co-founder of Anaconda. “Over the years, we’ve had the opportunity to donate time and resources to various projects in an ad hoc way; now, spurred by the increased commercial adoption of Anaconda, this program formalizes our contributions to the community.”

Companies today are increasingly adopting open-source software as a key component of their technology stacks. In the period from 2016 through 2019, enterprise usage of Anaconda increased more than 740%, with at least one-third of the Global 2000 relying heavily on its open-source packages today. According to a 2020 report from Red Hat, 77% of IT leaders expect to increase their use of solutions based on open-source software in the next year. The creation of both Commercial Edition and the Anaconda Dividend is inspired by this trend, providing pathways to support continued enterprise open-source adoption and to give back to the larger open-source community, while always providing a free edition of Anaconda for individual, non-commercial use.

“NumFOCUS has worked with Anaconda in a variety of formal and informal capacities over the years, so we’re looking forward to collaborating on The Anaconda Dividend Program,” said Leah Silen, executive director at NumFOCUS. “It’s critical for the sustainability of open-source software for companies to give back to the community, we’re pleased to see Anaconda’s continued leadership in this area.”

The program’s spending and governance will be overseen by an advisory committee of five representatives appointed by NumFOCUS and two appointed by Anaconda. Anaconda and NumFOCUS will release an annual report detailing amounts and sources of funding for the program, as well as the projects and initiatives that have been funded.

About Anaconda

With more than 20 million users, Anaconda is the world’s most popular data science platform and the foundation of modern machine learning. We pioneered the use of Python for data science, champion its vibrant community, and continue to steward open-source projects that make tomorrow’s innovations possible. Our enterprise-grade solutions enable corporate, research, and academic institutions around the world to harness the power of open-source for competitive advantage, groundbreaking research, and a better world.

About NumFOCUS

NumFOCUS works each day to make scientific computing more open and accessible. We are a US-based nonprofit organization which provides crucial administrative services and operational support for nearly 40 open source scientific computing projects. NumFOCUS also cultivates a diverse and welcoming community of users and developers around our projects through programs like PyData and DISC. For more information on how you can get involved and support our mission, please visit numfocus.org.

Source: Anaconda