Cloud backup, disaster recovery (BDR) and data protection software company OwnBackup has raised $240 million in Series E funding, and the company's valuation has surged to nearly $3.35 billion.
The Series E funding arrives only about seven months after OwnBackup raised $167.5 million in Series D funding at a $1.4 billion valuation. Translation: Venture capitalists believe OwnBackup's valuation has surged a rather amazing $1.9 billion or so from early 2021 to mid-2021.
OwnBackup is best known for its ability to back up customer data from the Salesforce.com cloud. But the company now plans to expand its service to support Microsoft Azure and Dynamics 365 cloud backup.
Still, this is more than a cloud-to-cloud application backup story. OwnBackup currently provides cloud data protection, sandbox seeding and data archiving solutions for nearly 4,000 organizations worldwide, the company says.
OwnBackup's rapid growth and funding represents quite an encore for CEO Sam Gutmann, an entrepreneur who joined the company at the very early stages of its business.
Although OwnBackup is perhaps best known in the enterprise cloud data protection market, Gutmann is well-respected in the MSP and SMB markets. Indeed, he previously co-launched, built and sold Intronis -- a cloud backup provider that Barracuda Networks has owned since 2015.
OwnBackup: Venture Capital Investors and Executive Team
Fast forward to August 2021, and the OwnBackup Series E funding round was co-led by Alkeon Capital and B Capital Group, including a secondary investment in the company by BlackRock Private Equity Partners and Tiger Global. Existing investors Insight Partners, Salesforce Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, and Vertex Ventures also participated.
In addition to Gutmann, the OwnBackup co-founder team includes data recovery, data protection and information security experts such as Ariel Berkman, Daniel Gershuni, Eran Cohen and Ori Yankelev. The company is headquartered in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, with research and development, support and other functions in Israel, EMEA and APAC.
Looking ahead, OwnBackup is preparing to extend its cloud data protection solution to support Microsoft Dynamics 365 in late 2021. Microsoft Azure support is also planned, though we're not sure of a target rollout date for that service.
OwnBackup Funding, Platform Expansion: Executive Commentary
In a prepared statement about the latest funding and platform strategy, OwnBackup CEO Sam Gutmann said:
“Our commitment to protecting our customers’ data and providing solutions that enable precise, rapid recovery continues to grow. While the cloud is crucial to doing business, the mass adoption of SaaS has resulted in a huge amount of data, and our work with Salesforce, Microsoft and other critical SaaS ecosystems enables companies to thrive in today’s digitally driven world. The story of every business is written with data, and this latest round of funding will support our ongoing vision to empower our customers to own and protect their data on any cloud platform.”
David Totten, chief technology officer at Microsoft, added:
“We’re pleased to partner with OwnBackup and give Dynamics 365 customers an additional layer of protection for their data. By enabling organizations to automate the backup process and restore the precise data they need in minutes, OwnBackup’s solutions will help Dynamics 365 customers run more business-critical workloads while eliminating the risk of data loss.”
OwnBackup Growth: Organic and Acquisitions
In addition to organic customer expansion, OwnBackup has been navigating the M&A market.
Among the key moves: In June 2021, OwnBackup acquired Nimmetry, a data integration software company that partners closely with Adobe, Salesforce, ServiceNow and Workday. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Dig a littler deeper into that M&A announcement, and you’ll notice that OwnBackup also acquired data security firm Merlinx of Tel Aviv, Israel. Merlinx develops cyber intelligence solutions for law enforcement, intelligence agencies and national security organizations, according to that company’s LinkedIn profile.
Roll it all together, and OwnBackup now supports nearly 4,000 organizations worldwide.
Additional insights from Joe Panettieri.
