Armon Dadgar, co-founder of HashiCorp and a University of Washington graduate, and his partner, Joshua Kalla, are giving $3 million to the UW’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering.
Dadgar launched HashiCorp in 2012 with co-founder Mitchell Hashimoto, shortly after the two graduated from the UW with computer science degrees. The San Francisco-based HashiCorp reached unicorn status in 2018 with a $1.9 billion valuation. In February, IBM acquired the cloud company for $6.4 billion.
Dadgar and Kalla, who live in Seattle, are directing their gift to two efforts:
- They’re giving $1 million to establish the Armon Dadgar & Joshua Kalla Endowed Professorship in Computer Science & Engineering, which is intended to help the Allen School lead at the intersection of systems and AI.
- The remaining $2 million goes to the Allen School Student Success Fund, which supports prospective and current students and has a focus on first-generation college students and K-12 students in Washington with limited access to computing education.
“Education has always been an incredible driver of economic mobility,” Dadgar said in a statement. “Our goal is to broaden the pathways into computer science and technology, and particularly to focus on first-generation college students where we can have a multi-generational impact on both the individual and their families.”
Dadgar and Kalla gave the UW $3.6 million in a 2019 gift that helped fund scholarships to undergraduate students who participate in the UW’s Educational Opportunity Program. The effort has supported 35 scholars to date.
Dadgar credited the Allen School for exposing him to wide-ranging research in operating systems, virtualization, networking and other technologies, providing the background needed to launch HashiCorp. The company builds technology to automate cloud infrastructure.
Kalla is an associate professor of political science at Yale University with a secondary appointment in statistics and data science.
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