Does Kaseya own Pulseway, the Ireland-based MSP software developer? The rumor surfaced in December 2018. We poked around, and mentioned the chatter in February 2019 (here) and March 2019 (see item 4 here). And now, Enterprise Times of the United Kingdom has connected the alleged investment dots between Kaseya, MMSoft Design and Pulseway.
Related: The alleged Kaseya-Pulseway timeline
To be clear, ChannelE2E hasn't outright confirmed Kaseya's ownership of Pulseway. But the circumstantial evidence of at least some sort of investment stake appears strong. Kaseya did not reply to ChannelE2E's request for comment earlier this year, and Pulseway declined to answer the ownership question when posed by Enterprise Times.
Strange.
Kaseya's Quiet Investments
No doubt, Kaseya and/or its private equity parent Insight Venture Partners have a habit of making investments and incubating the business relationships for quite some time without publicly disclosing the financial deals.
Indeed, the Kaseya-IT Glue ownership model was in place for roughly two years before that connection was revealed. I believe Kasya's ownership of RapidFire Tools also was in place for several months prior to disclosure.
So what's next? We've speculated that Kaseya may have some sort of investment stake or potential ties to The 20, an MSP-focused organization that helps service providers to scale their businesses. Updated March 26, 2019, 1:14 p.m. ET: Sources at The 20 say the relationship is purely a partnership, with no financial investment from Kaseya.
Insight Venture Partners: Exploring Kaseya Sale in 2019-2020?
After stumbling in the 2013 and 2014 timeframe, Kaseya hired CEO Fred Voccola in 2015, stabilized its business around 2016 and has since returned to growth mode. More recently, Kaseya parent Insight Venture Partners has allegedly hired bankers and/or consultants to explore a potential company sale of the software provider within the next year or so, sources tell ChannelE2E.
Voccola has previously told us that there's no "shot clock" on when a PE firm like Insight has to sell a software firm like Kaseya. But we're watching the situation closely...
Pulseway, meanwhile, is best known for RMM (remote monitoring and management) software but the company also has PSA (professional services automation) capabilities. In other words, Kaseya and Pulseway have product overlap. But that hasn't necessarily concerned private equity investors in recent years. After all, private equity giant Thoma Bravo has ownership stakes in rivals ConnectWise, Continuum and SolarWinds MSP. But in Thoma Bravo's case, the company has disclosed each investment when each deal occurred.
PS: Special thanks to an industry friend who pointed out the Enterprise Times article to me.
