Veeam Software has secured a $500 million (R6.8 billion) investment, the company announced yesterday.
The funding is led by Insight Venture Partners, a US-based venture capital and private equity firm, with participation from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB).
Veeam says the investment will enable it to accelerate its growth strategy through organic growth as well as mergers and acquisitions. This, it believes, will help drive expansion into adjacent markets.
"We have a long-standing relationship with Jeff Horing and Michael Triplett from Insight Venture Partners, having worked with them since 2002 when Insight invested in our first company, Aelita Software," says Ratmir Timashev, co-founder and executive VP of sales and marketing at Veeam.
"Back then, we relied on Insight to provide strategic counsel and support, and after we sold that company to Quest Software in 2004, we continued our relationship. Over the years, Insight has been a trusted advisor to Bill Largent, Andrei Baronov and me, even acquiring a minority share in Veeam back in 2013."
Founded in 2006, Veeam develops backup, disaster recovery and virtualisation management software. The company focuses on products that increase the resistance of virtualised workloads, reduce downtime, and ensure the system availability required by service-level agreements.
Veeam, which has been vocal about becoming the next billion-dollar software company, marked its 41st consecutive quarter of "double-digit growth" last October. In the third quarter of 2018, Veeam recorded bookings growth of more than 20% year-over-year.
Timashev expressed confidence in the Insight and CPPIB investment, insisting it will take the company's growth trajectory to the next level. Veeam has been growing organically over the last 12 years in a rapidly expanding cloud data management market, he adds.
In terms of the investment, Triplett, Insight Venture Partners' MD, joins Veeam's board of directors.
Triplett comments: "Over the past decade, Veeam has established itself as the premier vendor for on-premises backup and recovery software...Only great companies like Amazon and Apple have been able to pivot into market leading positions in multiple markets, and Veeam now joins this elite group.
"Veeam has unparalleled leadership in terms of technology, vision and go-to-market strategies, which we believe will only further extend its [number one] market position. Insight is thrilled to continue this journey with Veeam's management."
While the investment is a positive step for Veeam's future operations, it will not directly impact the company's African business in terms of funding specific country growth.
This is according to Kate Mollett, regional manager for Africa South at Veeam, explaining that the region's team will benefit from any developments made through R&D, or mergers and acquisitions in the same way as any other country in which the company operates.
"We are a global business leader and we are all focused on accelerating the next phase of Veeam's growth as the number one provider of backup solutions that enable intelligent data management for hybrid cloud."
Regional growth
According to Mollett, Veeam has "grown exponentially" in Africa over the past five years.
This, she says, can be attributed to several factors. "We arrived with a product that was built around virtualised server environments, which was the technology being driven in infrastructure deployments across the region. Then, as our product evolved we began to build out requirements for on-premises technologies, which opened the door to big enterprise-size accounts such as banks.
"Last year, we introduced our vision for intelligent data management, which combines all of the best practice of backup, but adds a layer of increased insight and visibility for IT teams, meaning they can orchestrate and automate tasks, saving time and money. Our end of year financial results will be published next week, so I can't comment on specifics until that time."
In quarter three of 2018, the Africa South region's bookings grew 30%, with licence and upgrade bookings up 19% year-over-year, mimicking the global figures.
Mollett adds the Africa South region has been a constant growth contributor to the company. However, Veeam has also made strong moves across Central Africa, securing major wins in the private and public sector in Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana.
"We've increased our technology expertise on the continent too, which now means we're better positioned than ever before to help African business manage data more efficiently, be that in the cloud, or on premises."
Speaking about the business outlook for this year, Mollett notes that a number of planned launches will see Veeam enable businesses to deliver the next stages of intelligent data management, going beyond pure backup and replication.
"The first announcement drops in the next month, so be sure to look for that news in the coming weeks," she concludes.
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