Aug
10
2021
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OwnBackup reels in $240M Series E on $3.35B valuation, up from $1.4B in January

OwnBackup, the late-stage startup that helps companies in the Salesforce ecosystem back up their data, announced a $240 million Series E today at a $3.35 billion valuation. The latter is up from $1.4 billion in January when the company announced a $167.5 million Series D.

Alkeon Capital and B Capital Group co-led today’s investment, which also included BlackRock Private Equity Partners and Tiger Global along with existing investors Insight Partners, Salesforce Ventures, Sapphire Ventures and Vertex Ventures. The company has now raised close to $500 million, with more than $455 million coming since last July.

That’s a lot of capital, but OwnBackup CEO Sam Gutmann says that as the Salesforce ecosystem has grown, which includes not only Salesforce itself, but companies like Veeva and nCino, business has been booming, growing 100% year-over-year since 2018. That kind of growth gets investor attention, and Gutmann reported a lot of inbound investor interest in this round.

What’s more, the company announced that it will now support the same type of backup for Microsoft Dynamics 365 customers, thereby greatly expanding its potential market. “We’re also announcing that we are expanding into the Microsoft ecosystem specifically around Microsoft Dynamics 365’s huge ecosystem. I think it’s the second-largest B2B SaaS ecosystem beyond Salesforce. We’re just getting started there, but super excited about the opportunity,” he said.

The company also sees the opportunity to grow the business through acquisition. Over the last year, it bought two small companies, but he says that was more focused on acquiring specific talent to develop the platform, while future acquisitions could be more focused on expanding the business itself.

As the company takes on this kind of investment, Gutmann sees an IPO possibility at some point in the future, but for now he’s concentrating on growth. “We’re not focused on exiting. We’ve really focused on developing what is already a huge market and growing into an even bigger market, continuing to expand with a business that has great unit economics and continues to grow nicely,” he said.

The company has ballooned to 500 employees this year, with plans to double that number in the next year. As he does that, Gutmann says that hiring in general is challenging, but he is always looking to find ways to diversify his workforce. “It’s really, really hard. Our hiring managers definitely focus on [diversity], but at the end of the day, we want the best employees for the job. I think we’ve made a lot of strides. We’re working with one of our largest investors, Insight, who is co-sponsoring a program to train, more on the junior side, some underrepresented minorities in technical fields and bring them on as full-time employees after that program,” Gutmann said.

Gutmann says his offices have remained open throughout the pandemic, but nobody was required to come in. In fact, he says that his company is one of the few that has actually added office space to make it easier to distance. The company, which is located in New Jersey, has also expanded space outdoors for working outside when the weather permits.

Jul
06
2016
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Microsoft gives Salesforce a shove with new Dynamics 365 integrated cloud platform

Boys in kitchen throwing flour at each other. Microsoft announced its intention today to combine the Dynamics CRM and ERP products into an integrated platform on top of which it is hoping third parties will build applications. It’s a complex announcement with many pieces, but Dynamics 365 shares more than its name with Office 365, it also has deep connections with the cloud office suite, as well as to Cortana voice intelligence… Read More

Jun
15
2016
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Microsoft makes some moves to lift Dynamics CRM marketshare

Space shuttle taking off firing booster rockets Microsoft has been searching for ways to strengthen its flagging Dynamics customer relationship management (CRM) tool, and it made a couple of moves this week (one quite significant) with an eye toward making life easier for sales people and enhancing its marketshare in the process. For starters, you might have heard that Microsoft bought LinkedIn on Monday for a cool $26 billion.… Read More

Apr
04
2016
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Apttus adds support for Microsoft Dynamics as it tries to expand its market reach beyond Salesforce

Apttus booth at Dreamforce 2015 Since its earliest days Apttus has always been a Salesforce shop. It’s built on the Salesforce platform and worked exclusively with Salesforce CRM, but that changed today when the company announced it would also be supporting Microsoft Dynamics in the future.
There seemed to be a shift in the company’s thinking at the end of last year when Salesforce bought SteelBrick, a fellow… Read More

Nov
16
2015
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Microsoft Dynamics Corporate VP Bob Stutz Steps Down

Microsoft logo on Microsoft Store. In a stunner today, Microsoft Corporate VP Bob Stutz stepped down from his job running Microsoft Dynamics CRM. MSDynamicsWorld broke the story, and Microsoft has confirmed the news in a statement. Bob Stutz will be leaving Microsoft and will take a well-deserved break.  Over the past 3.5 years, Bob and his team have transformed Dynamics CRM from an industry challenger to a clear leader. … Read More

Sep
08
2015
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Microsoft Announces Major Update To Dynamics CRM Coming In Q4

Sales person giving client his card. Microsoft began what promises to be a long road to the fourth quarter release of its Dynamics CRM product today. The product has been completely redesigned, with the on-prem and cloud versions receiving major upgrades. It’s worth noting that while this is a major release announcement, the company has been making ongoing updates to the cloud version of the product. This announcement is… Read More

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