News Article
Actifio continues fast growth pace, eyes IPO for 2014
February 1, 2013
Waltham data management firm Actifio is “one of the fastest growing storage companies in the history of storage,” according to Peter Levine, a general partner with prominent Silicon Valley venture firm Andreessen Horowitz and board member at Actifio.
In the fourth quarter of 2012, the software-as-a-service firm saw seven times the bookings it had seen in the same period a year earlier, founder and CEO Ash Ashutosh said. The quarter consisted of 62 deals averaging about $210,000 a piece, for a total of $13 million in business booked.
Actifio aims to cut data management costs for enterprises by up to 90 percent while bringing an “Apple-like simplicity” to the process, Ashutosh has said. The service revolves around drastically reducing the number of copies a company needs to make of its data, while ensuring the data is still accessible and protected.
The ultimate result: Companies that previously needed an array of software and storage hardware, along with specialized staff to run it all, can now just use Actifio, Ashutosh said.
Andreessen Horowitz led Actifio’s $33 million round in December 2011, and Levine, who was behind the deal, said he was “always very optimistic” about the company.
“When that optimism comes true, that’s fantastic,” he said. “The team has done a wonderful job executing.”
Ashutosh, who previously said Actifio expected revenue above $30 million for 2012, said the company has changed the way it tallies revenue, to focus on bookings rather than revenue received. That means the company is not disclosing specific revenue figures for 2012, he said.
That change will likely lead the company to push back its filing of S-1 IPO intentions documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Ashutosh said. The firm had previously planned to file the documents by as soon as late 2013, but will now push that back by one or more quarters, he said.
“One of the things investors look for in a SaaS company is predictability over a two or two-and-a-half year period, so it requires some more time for us to create that,” he said.
Actifio has raised $57 million in venture capital since its founding in 2009, with other backers including North Bridge Venture Partners, Greylock Partners and Advanced Technology Ventures.
The company employs about 200 people worldwide, including about 80 in Waltham, Ashutosh said. Actifio expects to grow to 250 employees overall by the end of the year, with 25 to 30 percent of this year’s hiring in Waltham, he said.
Actifio was among the 13 hot Boston tech firms I’m watching this year.