Electric, an MSP and IT support provider in New York, has achieved unicorn status -- reaching the $1 billion company valuation mark.
The milestone arrives as Electric raises $20 million in extended Series D funding led by Harmonic Growth Partners. The extended funding surfaces five months after Electric raised $90 million in October 2021. Earlier stage investors included GGV Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Primary Venture Partners, Greenspring Associates, 01 Advisors, Atreides Management, Vintage Investment Partners and Slack.
The latest funding will be used for "additional strategic acquisitions, and expanding into new markets and verticals," the company indicated. Earlier acquisitions include Techvera, Sinu and the MSP division of Cima Solutions Group.
Electric: IT Services Business Growth, SaaS Application Management Expertise
Electric, led by CEO and Founder Ryan Denehy, now supports more than 720 customers and 45,000 end-users, the MSP indicated. the end-user figure has grown by about 5,000 since October 2021, according to ChannelE2E's ongoing coverage of the company.
Moreover, Electric revenue has more than doubled over the past year. Still actual monthly recurring revenue (MRR) dollar figures were not disclosed. Also, EBITDA (earning before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) is undisclosed.
While traditional MSPs often remotely manage customer networks, servers and notebooks, Electric emphasizes the need to manage SaaS applications for SMBs. Indeed, the typical business now runs 88 different SaaS applications, according to Okta’s Business At Work report for 2021.
Amid that SaaS complexity, Electric claims to simplify IT for small businesses, “giving them a single platform to view, purchase and manage their entire IT infrastructure, as well as real-time support to free them from daily IT tasks that drain resources,” the MSP said amid that October 2021 funding move.
The overall MSP market is warming up to that SaaS management message. Indeed, upstarts such as Augmentt and SaaS Alerts (among others) are popping up to offer their own SaaS management, monitoring and/or security tools for MSPs.
In addition to building its own software, Electric leverages commercial IT management, monitoring and automation tools from Cisco Meraki, Jamf, Kaseya, Slack and Ubiquiti Networks.
MSP Funding: Perspectives on Electric
In a prepared statement about the funding, Electric CEO Ryan Denehy said:
"More than ever the American economy depends on the vibrancy of SMBs, and SMBs depend on IT to grow their business. Electric is enabling a world where businesses can buy and manage IT through a single cloud-based platform, keeping businesses secure and delivering a remarkable employee experience. We have known the team from Harmonic for quite some time, and felt it was a great opportunity to leverage the firm's extensive network of software industry CEOs and operators."
Added Dave Yarnold, CEO partner with Harmonic, and former CEO of ServiceMax and VP Global Sales at SAP SuccessFactors:
"We're thrilled to put our support behind Electric as their technology redefines what IT support looks and feels like for businesses. Electric supports modern work by truly simplifying and delivering lightning-fast IT–a need-to-have for small businesses in this environment.”
