This week marked an exciting milestone, as Acronis announced that Goldman Sachs was investing $147 million in our future. That funding brings Acronis’ valuation to more than $1 billion, making us the world’s newest unicorn – a designation given to private companies that reach that valuation level – and the first B2B software company founded in Singapore to reach that valuation mark.

Since the announcement, the industry has reacted to this new funding and what it will mean for Acronis and its impact on the industry. The clear consensus is that this funding will enable Acronis to accelerate our North American growth as we expand our global engineering team, increase our strategic acquisitions, and partner closely with the independent public sector vendor Acronis SCS.

As a result, there will be a lot for industry observers to watch in the coming few years.

The future is cyber protection

This funding comes at a watershed moment. We’ve been successfully pioneering the new IT discipline of cyber protection, which combines traditional data protection and cybersecurity into an integrated approach that addresses the Five Vectors of Cyber Protection – ensuring the safety, accessibility, privacy, authenticity, and security of data (SAPAS).

Industry observers like TechCrunch note the potential for cyber protection is definitely there. After talking with Acronis CEO and founder Serguei Beloussov about the investment news, they explained that the growing demand for cyber protection solutions is being driven by three trends:

“The first is the increasing adoption of edge computing and endpoint computing, which means more devices outside of data centers need to be protected. The second is the increasing sophistication of cybercrime. Companies need to protect themselves against attacks, but also be prepared to perform recovery and forensics when they happen. The third is the cost of protecting large amounts of data, meaning providers who are able to offer the lowest pricing gain an advantage.”

With its unique vision and innovative solutions, Acronis’ approach to cyber protection is transforming the industry – which is part of what attracted Goldman Sachs. As Holger Staude, Vice President GS Growth explained, “We are excited to invest in Acronis at this stage of rapid growth. The traditional backup and data protection market is being disrupted by Acronis Cyber Protection, an innovative solution delivered efficiently through a vast channel of service providers.”

Expanded engineering

Located in Singapore, Bulgaria, and Arizona, Acronis’ engineering teams are the reason the company can offer cutting-edge solutions. Acronis plans to leverage its technological advantage by using this round of investment to, in part, expand its engineering teams.

Silicon Angle’s Duncan Riley reported that some of the funding will be used to “fast-track the roll-out of the Acronis Cyber Platform, a recently launched [platform] that allows developers [and ISVs] to integrate and extend their applications and services with cyber protection solutions while connecting and selling them to Acronis channel partners.”

Strategic acquisitions

The increase in engineering capabilities, combined with the planned acquisition of new teams, technologies and additional resources, will also accelerate the development of other Acronis projects and products.

Paul Crocetti of Tech Target described the opportunity as Acronis “looking to speed up its growth both in house and from outside.”

He noted that earlier in the year, Acronis planned to make at least three acquisitions this year. Following the news of the Goldman Sachs-led investment, Crocetti wrote, “that’s still the plan. [Beloussov] noted that he wants technology that can completely integrate into the Acronis Cyber Platform, as it’s important for users to have a single suite. In addition, Acronis is looking for broader workload support and for acquisitions to extend what the company currently offers, all within the focus of cyber protection.”

Sharing the vision of cyber protection

Acronis’ mission is to protect all data, applications, and systems, so in addition to adding new staff and acquiring new resources the company wants to spread the benefits of cyber protection to as many businesses, service providers and IT professionals as possible.

Monica Melton of Forbes noted that “As part of its vision for the near future, Acronis wants to begin to educate its partner network of around 50,000 vendors on building a business selling its solutions. The company will host a summit next month.”

She’s referring to the Acronis Global Cyber Summit taking place in Miami, FL from October 13-16. It is designed to be the largest gathering of service providers, resellers, and software developers dedicated to cyber protection.

The three-day event will have a full roster of cybersecurity heavyweights diving deep into a broad range of urgent cyber protection issues. Speakers include luminaries like Robert Herjavec, cybersecurity entrepreneur and co-host of Shark Tank; Eric O’Neill, the renowned former FBI counterintelligence operative; and Keren Elazari, the internationally recognized security analyst, researcher, and writer.

Final thought

As Kyle Wigger said in Venture Beat, “It’s been a banner year for Acronis, which reported 20% business growth in 2018 and is on track to notch over 30% growth (and over 100% on the Cyber Cloud side of the business) by 2020.”

Reaching “unicorn” status during the same year is an amazing feat.

But more importantly, Goldman Sachs’ investment in Acronis means we will continue to deliver great cyber protection solutions while transforming the industry – ensuring IT pros, service providers, enterprises and companies of all sizes have the protection they need to face modern threats to their business-critical data.

If you want to meet us and our ecosystem and see first hand what all the buzz is about, secure yourself a ticket to the Acronis Global Cyber Summit here.