Dell EMC has sold Spanning, its cloud data protection subsidiary, to private equity firm Insight Venture Partners. The purchase price was not disclosed.
Dell is parting ways with the business even as Spanning reports year-over-year revenue growth of 70 percent, but it will continue to resell Spanning’s cloud backup services as a strategic partner.
Backed by Insight’s finances, Spanning will operate independently from its Austin, Texas headquarters. Vice President and General Manager Jeff Erramouspe will return to his previous role as CEO, which he held before Spanning’s acquisition by EMC.
“The support from Insight gives us the freedom and fuel to continue to provide the best in SaaS data protection solutions and continue to grow stronger as we enter this new stage,” Erramouspe said in a statement.
A New Chapter
The sale comes some seven months after Dell Technologies closed on its historic $63 billion purchase of EMC Corp. It was the largest tech merger ever.
EMC acquired Spanning in October 2014.
New York-based Insight said it has a long track record of success with growth-stage companies. Founded in 1995, the company has raised more than $13 billion and invested in more than 250 companies worldwide.
“We’ve seen a marked increase in SaaS adoption in the enterprise, especially in large and mid-market organizations,” Philip Vorobeychik, vice president at Insight, said in a statement. “With that comes a greater awareness of the fact that companies are responsible for recovery of data lost due to user error or malicious activity. We believe Spanning has all the ingredients for continued success and market leadership.”
Mike Pav, previously Spanning’s vice president of engineering, has been named senior vice president of operations. All 56 employees will remain with the company.
Spanning’s Growth
Spanning offers backup and recovery for some of the most common Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps: G Suite, Salesforce and Microsoft Office 365.
With more than 7,000 customers, Spanning attributes recent growth to its global data center expansion, an increasing number of large enterprise deals, and distribution agreements with major channel partners.
The company protects more than 1.5 billion items for customers each week, and it restored about 18 million items for customers in 2016.
Spanning recently announced an extension of its global data protection for Office 365 in Australia and New Zealand, adding to its existing overseas data center.
The company says it is the only backup solution that offers a 100 percent G Suite restore guarantee, and it has been named as a “must-have app” by Salesforce.
