Why Insight Partners Is Buying Veeam For About $5 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jan 12, 2020
  • Insight Partners recently announced it is buying Veeam Software in a deal valued at $5 billion. These are the details.

Insight Partners recently announced that it entered a definitive agreement to acquire Veeam Software — which is a leader in Backup solutions that deliver Cloud Data Management. As a company within the Insight Partners portfolio, Veeam will become a U.S. company with a U.S.-based leadership team while continuing its global expansion from offices in 30 countries and with customers in over 160 countries.

And the acquisition — which is expected to close during the first quarter of 2020 — will enable Veeam to accelerate its Act II (Veeam’s evolution into Hybrid Cloud), expand into new markets, and continue its growth trajectory.

As part of the acquisition, William H. Largent was promoted to CEO. Previously, he was the EVP of Operations. And Danny Allan was promoted to CTO from VP of Product Strategy.

Veeam had received an investment from Insight Partners at the beginning of 2019 and then it worked along with the venture firm on its business strategy and ScaleUp division called Insight Onsite for expanding its software-defined Veeam Cloud Data Management Platform. Veeam is hitting over $1 billion in annual sales and has over 365,000 customers worldwide.

This past year, Veeam also launched a number of new innovations, including Veeam Backup for Amazon Web Services (AWS), Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365 v4, Veeam Universal License (VUL). And the company also revealed Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure earlier this year. The core of Veeam’s strategy is simplicity and reliability to its global customer base — which includes 81% of the Fortune 500.

“Veeam has enjoyed rapid global growth over the last decade and we see tremendous opportunity for future growth, particularly in the U.S. market. With the acquisition, we are excited that our current U.S. workforce of more than 1,200 will be expanded and strengthened to acquire and support more customers,” said William H. Largent, CEO at Veeam. “Veeam has one of the highest caliber global workforces of any technology company, and we believe this acquisition will allow us to scale our team and technology at an unrivalled pace.”

Veeam is a clear market leader of Backup solutions that enable Cloud Data Management. And it recently launched new cloud-native solutions that will enable customers to manage, migrate, orchestrate and protect data across AWS and Microsoft Azure environments. Over the next few weeks, Veeam Availability Suite v10 will be generally available.

“In a world where a business’s most valuable asset, its data, is constantly on the move and being created at unprecedented rates, data management has never been more critical, and more complex. Legacy solutions cannot keep up. Veeam’s software provides holistic coverage for the modern business,” Veeam Software chief technology officer Danny Allan said. “While Veeam’s preeminence in the data management space, currently supporting 81% of the Fortune 500, is undeniable, this commitment from Insight Partners and deeper access to its unmatched business strategy and ScaleUp division, Insight Onsite, will bring Veeam’s solutions to more businesses across the globe.”

The board of directors will be immediately supplemented with several seasoned software, government, and business leaders as co-investor Nick Ayers (Ayers Neugebauer & Company) will be joining Insight Partners Managing Director Mike Triplett and Largent on the Board.

After the acquisition is completed, Veeam Software co-founders Andrei Baronov and Ratmir Timashev will be stepping down from the board. And Insight Partners Managing Directors Ryan Hinkle and Ross Devor will each serve on the board once the deal is completed.

“Veeam’s strong growth, coupled with high customer retention, unparalleled data management solutions, and the opportunities to expand services into new markets, make Veeam one of the most exciting software companies in the world today,” explained Triplett. “Veeam’s platform is the most advanced and complete data management solution available to businesses requiring a seamless blend of data backup and recovery, data protection, data security and data availability. We are committed to supporting Veeam’s next phase of leadership and growth in the United States, continued market-share leadership position in EMEA, and continued global expansion.”