Kaseya plans to hire 1,100 employees by the end of 2022 and the hires will be organic, the MSP software provider tells ChannelE2E.
"These are new hires that Kaseya is bringing on to support its rapid growth trajectory," according to Dana Liedholm, senior VP, corporate marketing at Kaseya.
Does Kaseya own ConnectBooster?: Meanwhile, rumors have circulated in some MSP circles that Kaseya now owns or has some sort of business interest in ConnectBooster -- a software provider that helps MSPs to automate customer payment tasks.
Speculation about a potential Kaseya-ConnectBooster deal surfaced at Kaseya's October 2021 conference, during which ConnectBooster introduced Secure Payments software that “allows IT services professionals to quickly evaluate and address the security, compliance, and optimization of their clients’ payment landscapes.”
Amid the unconfirmed chatter, ChannelE2E wondered if Kaseya or its private equity parents (TPG and/or Insight Partners) have a financial stake in ConnectBooster. Liedholm's response: "We have no information to share regarding ConnectBooster."
Related: Kaseya Rival Datto Explores Potential Company Sale
Kaseya Revenue Growth, Acquisitions, and IPO?
To be sure, Kaseya has been in growth mode. The MSP software provider grew 25 percent in 2021 vs. 2020, according to a January 2022 statement from the company. Key moves from 2021 include acquiring managed SOC (security operations center) RocketCyber and MSP coaching firm TruMethods.
Kaseya in January 2022 said it planned to hire 1,300 new employees this year -- with plans for new talent in Miami, Florida; Dublin, Ireland; Krakow, Poland; and Sydney, Australia. Fast forward to March 2022, and Kaseya apparently has filled 200 of those 1,300 new positions, according to the South Florida Business Journal.
Will Kaseya Go Public? Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola for more than a year has been preparing and positioning the MSP software company for a potential financial event -- including but not limited to a potential Kaseya IPO.
Anecdotal evidence says the business held up quite well amid the July 2021 REvil Ransomware attack against Kaseya VSA -- an RMM (remote monitoring and management) software platform. Still, the cyberattack likely pushed back plans for a major financial move like an IPO or some sort of private equity recapitalization, ChannelE2E believes.
My best guess is we may see something around the time of Kaseya Connect IT Global 2022 -- an MSP conference set for June in Las Vegas, Nevada. Still, that's just a hunch. And we've all see the recent financial turbulence hammering SaaS company valuations on Wall Street. We don't know if or how that will influence Kaseya's capitalization strategy.
Either way, Kaseya's business remains in growth mode and the overall MSP software industry appears healthy.
MSP Software Market: Rivals, Upstarts and Unicorns
Indeed, rivals such as ConnectWise, Datto, N-able and NinjaOne each are generating double-digit percentage revenue growth year-over-year, with NinjaOne growing the fastest according to the chatter we've heard. Both Datto and N-able are publicly held with backing from Vista Equity Partners and Thoma Bravo, respectively. Datto apparently is exploring a potential company sale. ConnectWise is privately owned by Thoma Bravo. And NinjaOne remains closely held with venture capital funding from Summit Partners.
Meanwhile, MSP software startups also are in rapid growth mode. Fast-growth names to know include Addigy, Atera, Gradient, Liongard, SuperOps.ai, Syncro, and Zomentum. Shift your eyes to the pure play MSP security market, and startups like Blackpoint Cyber and Huntress have gained critical mass.
If I had to guess, the MSP technology market's next unicorns (privately held companies with $1 billion valuations) will be cloud marketplace provider Pax8 and unified platform provider NinjaOne. But that's just a guess... ...
As for Kaseya, the company remains in expansion mode -- with plans to fill 1,100 new positions before the end of 2022.
