Singapore's Acronis doubles valuation to US$2.5b after funding round; eyes exit in 3 years

SINGAPORE-BASED Acronis more than doubled its valuation to over US$2.5 billion in a new US$250 million funding round led by private equity firm CVC Capital Partners VII, as it looks to capitalise on its momentum for growth. It was previously valued at over US$1 billion after a US$147 million funding round led by Goldman Sachs in September 2019.

Chief executive and founder Serguei Beloussov told The Business Times (BT) that an initial public offering is "definitely a possibility" within the next three years. "Our obligation and responsibility to investors is to provide liquidity, whether it's through a public offering or a merger and acquisition (M&A). Ultimately, we will choose the path that best protects our data applications and systems."

While the company is open to where it lists or gets acquired, Mr Beloussov told BT that it will still "consider every option". But at this point, North America is still the largest market for companies like Acronis, he added.

The growth comes in part as companies look to bulk up their cyber protection amid the Covid-19 pandemic. To capture this, Acronis plans to widen its product range and expand its network of partners, hoping to achieve US$10 billion in revenue by the next decade.

"It's better and easier to grow when you are a market leader... Unless you innovate, and unless you accelerate, there is always a possibility for somebody to catch up," Mr Beloussov said. "We need to maximise our growth potential now, to make our technology deeper and more autonomous."

Acronis, which is based in Switzerland and Singapore, provides cyber protection for a client's data, applications, and systems. It does so in part through managed service providers (MSPs), which implement these data security solutions in their own networks that can reach hundreds of thousands of users. The company currently has about 10,000 active partners, and hopes to triple this number over the next three years.

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"Acronis has invested significant resources developing an innovative cloud-native 'MSP in a box' solution with integrated backup, disaster recovery, cybersecurity, remote management, and workflow tools," said Leif Lindbäck, senior managing director of CVC Capital Partners. "Acronis provides mission-critical solutions to more than 10,000 MSPs and half a million small and medium businesses."

The company is now looking to double down on growing this partner network for rapid growth. Mr Beloussov, a Russia-born Singaporean, said that fresh funds will be used to expand the support for cloud partners - providing them with additional sales and marketing resources, faster and localised technical support, partner success managers, and local data centres in 111 locations worldwide.

It will also hire new technical talent for its research and development centres in Bulgaria, Israel, and Singapore, as well as Switzerland and the United States. Mr Beloussov said Acronis is also planning to double its employee headcount in the next three years, focusing on functions such as engineers and technicians. The company now has more than 1,600 employees in 33 locations across 18 markets.

"Our goal is to develop market-leading technology and help our partners grow their profits, while providing the best protection for their clients," said Mr Beloussov.

"CVC has a strong track record in cybersecurity and partnering up with successful entrepreneurs, and we are looking forward to teaming up with Serguei Beloussov and the Acronis team to accelerate the company's growth," said Ms Lindbäck.