Venture capital, Business continuity, Storage

Druva Cloud Data Protection: Late Stage Funding Now, IPO Later?

Druva has raised $147 million in late-stage funding that values the cloud data protection software company at more than $2 billion. The big question: Is this funding a final stepping stone before a potential Druva IPO (initial public offering) or strategic exit?

First, the facts: The Druva funding round was led by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), a global investment group, with a "significant investment" by Neuberger Berman. Existing investors Viking Global Investors and Atreides Management also participated in the round.

The funding comes amid booming demand for cloud-based data protection, backup and disaster recovery (BDR) subscription software and related services. However, the cloud backup market also is crowded with entrenched rivals, venture-backed upstarts and private equity owned rivals.

Druva Growth, Potential IPO Plan

2020 Interview: Druva CEO Jaspreet Singh explains partner strategy, potential path to IPO
2020 Interview: Druva CEO Jaspreet Singh explains partner strategy, potential path to IPO

Druva, meanwhile, is in growth mode. The anecdotal evidence includes:

  • Adoption of multiple Druva Cloud Platform products increased by 50 percent in 2020 vs. 2019.
  • In the last year, the company’s data under management has grown by more than 40 percent.

Still, Druva did not disclose actual revenue or EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) figures. Also, Druva didn't mention how much of the growth involved organic demand vs. acquisitions. Key acquisitions include Salesforce cloud backup provider sfApex, and data migration startup CloudLanes.

Potential Druva IPO?: In a 2020 ChannelE2E interview, Druva CEO Jaspreet Singh explained the company's overall business and partner strategy. Without making guarantees about Druva's financial plan, he pointed more to an IPO rather than a strategic exit.

Druva Cloud Data Protection: Funding Perspectives

In a prepared statement about the funding, Neuberger Berman Managing Director Charles Kantor said:

“We have been extremely impressed by Druva’s talented management team, leading technology, and ongoing innovation in serving the enterprise market. We believe we are in the early innings of enterprises shifting workloads to the cloud, and Druva’s proprietary solutions position the company for long-term success. We look forward to providing our experienced market perspectives to management as Druva marks this important inflection point in its growth trajectory.”

Added Jaspreet Singh, founder and CEO, Druva:

“The unprecedented events of 2020 have ushered in a generational cloud transformation for businesses, and data‘s increasing value is at the very heart of it. Druva pioneered the cloud data protection category almost a decade ago and has led the way in defining the architecture, business model, and user experience our customers now expect. This investment and our continued, rapid growth is further validation of our vision for a simple, open, and unified data protection and management platform.”

Druva Rivals, Cloud Data Protection Market

Meanwhile, M&A activity in the cloud and SaaS application backup market remains steady and strong. Recent deals include:

Also of note: Most of the major MSP platform providers — Barracuda, ConnectWise, Datto, Kaseya, N-able and NinjaRMM — now offer some form of backup, and many of the firms have either acquired or developed SaaS data application backup services.

Still, Druva also remains in growth mode. We'll be watching to see if that growth eventually leads toward an IPO.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.

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