Cloud backup software provider Veeam says it is “well-poised” to become a billion dollar software company by the end of 2018 after posting $827 million (£611m) in total bookings revenue for 2017.
The Swiss-based company said it secured more $500,000-plus deals in 2017 than in the previous six years combined, taking its total number of customers to 282,000. Deals which were $1 million and above saw 500% growth in 2017.
Customers include more than half (57%) of the Forbes Global 2000, the company added, while client wins in 2017 included The Ameritas Life Insurance Company and Industrial Scientific. Speaking of Forbes, 2017 also saw Veeam being placed in the Forbes Cloud 100 list of top private cloud companies for the first time, being ranked #27, while the company added more than 1,000 employees last year, saying 2018 will be where Veeam makes its people “a major priority”.
“Organisations across the globe are dealing with massive data sprawl, and the need to ensure availability of data and applications across a complex multi-cloud environment has never been greater,” said Peter McKay, Veeam president and co-CEO in a statement. “Veeam continues to grow at double-digit rates as legacy competitors experience a decline.
“Our leadership and momentum in delivering available for any app, any data, across any cloud has us well poised to be a billion dollar software company by the end of 2018,” McKay added.
With these excellent results – allied to a $600m-plus year in 2016 – the company has been under the microscope of investors for some time. As far back as 2015, Veeam was telling the media it planned to stay private. Ratmir Timashev, co-founder and then-CEO, told CNBC that staying private would give the company “the ability to execute without pressure from external investors.” The company is also rare in the space in not being propped up by venture capital rounds, although it does have a strategic partnership in place with Insight Venture Partners, the firm acquiring a minority stake in Veeam in 2013.
The cloud tech M&A position is an interesting one right now. This time last year, received wisdom – according to Byron Deeter of Bessemer Venture Partners – was that the IPO space was running a little dry with greater emphasis on acquisitions as a result. This changed with a healthy 2017 for cloudy IPOs, including MongoDB, Cloudera, Okta, and MuleSoft. Speaking to this publication in June after securing $46 million in series D funding, Dan Phillips, co-founder of CloudHealth Technologies, noted the market was “showing some positive signs”, outlining the company’s future plans did involve going public.
Of the inaugural Forbes Cloud 100 list in 2016, 10 companies did not make it to the 2017 offering because they had ‘graduated’, as Forbes put it, to sale or IPO. Cloudera was in the top 10 that year, alongside AppDynamics, acquired by Cisco in March. The Forbes Cloud 100 therefore is always an interesting benchmark of companies who are ripe on the vine – even if Veeam’s only plans right now are to grow into a billion dollar company.