Cyber protection company Acronis has received more than $250 million (R3, 6 billion) in a funding round from CVC Capital Partners VII and other investors. The investment values the company at more than $2.5 billion (R36 billion).
Acronis said it will use the funds to further accelerate growth by expanding its portfolio of natively integrated cyber protection products. A significant portion of the investment will be used to further enhance Acronis’ go-to-market initiatives by expanding its partner network – most notably managed service providers (MSPs) – to help them better serve the cyber protection needs of their clients.
Acronis has been particularly active in South Africa where recent investments include the acquisition of its long-time distributor, Synapsys, and the appointment of Tarsus and Rectron as distributors.
Acronis predicted at the beginning of 2021 that data protection and security challenges, amplified by the shift to remote work at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, would bring aggressive cybercrime activity as criminals pivot their attacks from data encryption to data exfiltration ie – crucial data is copied or illegally transferred.
In 2020, Acronis’ analysts found evidence that more than 1,000 companies globally had their data leaked following ransomware attacks, and is seeing this trend continuing into 2021. This is evidenced locally by numerous cyber attacks being made public in SA.
“Acronis provides mission-critical solutions to more than 10,000 MSPs and half a million small and medium businesses. 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,” Leif Lindbäck, Senior Managing Director of CVC Capital Partners, said.
“Acronis’ management and R&D teams have invested significant resources developing an innovative cloud-native ‘MSP in a box’ solution, with integrated backup, disaster recovery, cybersecurity, remote management, and workflow tools.”
Acronis Cyber Protect is the first unified cybersecurity and data protection solution that is natively integrated, so service providers can operate these critical functions through a single pane of glass, delivering comprehensive cyber protection at a lower cost, Acronis said.
Phil Goodwin, Research Director, Cloud Data Management for Protection for IDC, noted that the investment from CVC will add to the momentum behind cyber protection.
“Acronis has been at the forefront of the cyber protection movement, establishing itself as a pioneer in solutions that unify advanced cybersecurity with innovative data protection. By continuing to expand their technical capabilities and partner network, the value they bring to the market will only increase.”
“With this additional funding, we will accelerate the development of our product portfolio and invest more in our partners’ success,” said Serguei ‘SB’ Beloussov, founder and CEO of Acronis.
“Our goal is to develop market-leading technology and help our partners grow their profits, while providing the best protection for their clients.”
Acronis will continue to invest in staff resources, expanding its global sales, partner account management and partner success teams, and hiring new technical talent for its research and development centers.
Focus on partners
Acronis said focusing on its growing partner network is critical to the company’s strategy for rapid growth.
In February, the company launched the #CyberFit Partner Program to support the development of cloud-focused resellers and service providers.
In March, Acronis made available a new version of Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud – enabling partners to deliver comprehensive cyber protection for all workloads for little to no upfront cost.
In April, Acronis introduced a new partner portal, providing easy access to content, tools, and training for partners.
With the new funding, Acronis will expand the support for cloud partners – providing them with additional sales and marketing resources, faster and localized technical support, dedicated partner success managers, and local data centres in 111 locations worldwide.
