Goldman Sachs-backed cybersecurity firm Acronis nets $250m from CVC Capital

As an increasing amount of company and user data is stored online, the threat of hackers stealing such valuable information is also steadily growing. Last year, there was a significant rise in cyberattacks as the Covid-19 pandemic pushed many companies to adopt technology in order to continue operating.

As such, it’s not surprising that the global cybersecurity market is expected to reach US$248.6 billion by 2023, according to a MarketsandMarkets report. One company that’s looking to ride this wave is Acronis, a cybersecurity firm based in Singapore and Switzerland.

The company announced today that it has received over US$250 million in a round of funding from CVC Capital Partners VII at a valuation of US$2.5 billion.

“We believe that just like with a physical disease, it is not enough [for companies] to have a response. It is important [for them] to do prevention, detection, response, recovery, and forensics,” Acronis founder and CEO Serguei Beloussov tells Tech in Asia. He sees a US$50 billion total addressable market opportunity for the company in this space.

Acronis founder and CEO Serguei Beloussov / Photo credit: Serguei Beloussov

The startup said that it will use the funds to further accelerate its growth by expanding its portfolio of natively integrated cyberprotection products.

A significant portion of the funding will also be used to enhance Acronis’ go-to-market initiatives by widening its partner networks, especially managed service providers, the company said in a statement.

This includes boosting support for cloud partners by providing them with additional sales and marketing resources, faster and localized technical support, dedicated partner success managers, and local data centers in 111 locations worldwide.

The company will also invest in staff resources, expanding its teams for global sales as well as for account management and partner success. It’s aiming to hire new technical talent for its research and development centers in Bulgaria, Israel, Singapore, Switzerland, and the US.

Acronis plans to double its headcount from 1,600 to over 3,000 employees in the next three years. Hiring will also come in the form of acquiring businesses that complement the company. It’s targeting to snap up a dozen companies in the next 12 months, Serguei says.

The company has already acquired five companies to date, including South Africa-based Synapsys in March and Israeli consultancy firm CyberLynx in November last year.

Acronis was founded in Singapore in 2003 and incorporated in Switzerland in 2008. The startup specializes in backup, protection, disaster recovery, and enterprise file syncing and sharing solutions. It offers its products through 50,000 partners and service providers in over 150 countries. The company aims to triple its partners in the next few years.

Its Acronis Cyber Protect product is the first unified cybersecurity and data protection solution that’s natively integrated, according to the company. This enables service providers to operate functions such as cybersecurity and data protection and management through a single point and at a lower cost.

Going ahead, the company is mulling plans of going public via an initial public option (IPO) in the US. However, the company didn’t give a timeline as it is in initial stages and could also consider other options in order to provide returns to its investors.