Cloud Platform Druva Raises $147 Mn, Valuation Above $2 Bn The new funding will be utilized to fuel continued innovation, scale and expand routes to market for the Druva Cloud platform

Sunnyvale-headquartered cloud data protection and management platform Druva Inc. announced a $147 million investment as the company rapidly scales in response to accelerated demand for its platform. The fundraise was led by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), a global investment group, with a significant investment by Neuberger Berman, each of which manages more than $300 billion in net assets.

The round, which raises the company's valuation above $2 billion, also included participation from existing investors Viking Global Investors and Atreides Management. As organizations quickly move workloads to cloud environments, adopt SaaS solutions, and combat rising cyber threats, this new investment will fuel continued expansion of Druva Cloud Platform to meet today's unprecedented needs, and extend the company's industry leadership as it defines tomorrow's data protection, the company shared.

"Rising volumes of stored data, rapid adoption of cloud and deployment of SaaS applications, regulatory frameworks, and cybersecurity concerns have accelerated the demand for data protection and management solutions for businesses," said Alexandre Synnett, executive vice president and chief technology officer, CDPQ. "The working-from-home dynamic experienced globally has further accentuated the need for cloud-based data protection solutions and we believe Druva is in an excellent position to seize opportunities and enhance its clients' agility and data compliance."

Over the last 12 months, enterprises have moved swiftly to adopt cloud solutions to strengthen business resilience, maintain critical business operations, and support hybrid work models.

"We have been extremely impressed by Druva's talented management team, leading technology, and ongoing innovation in serving the enterprise market," shared Charles Kantor, managing director, Neuberger Berman. "We believe we are in the early innings of enterprises shifting workloads to the cloud, and Druva's proprietary solutions position the company for long-term success. We look forward to providing our experienced market perspectives to management as Druva marks this important inflection point in its growth trajectory."

With the ability to deliver faster time to value and help businesses manage, protect, and govern critical data during their digital transformation efforts, Druva Cloud Platform's customer base has expanded substantially during 2020, while the adoption of multiple Druva Cloud Platform products has increased by 50 per cent in the same time period.

"The unprecedented events of 2020 have ushered in a generational cloud transformation for businesses, and data"s increasing value is at the very heart of it," remarked Jaspreet Singh, founder, and chief executive officer, Druva. "Druva pioneered the cloud data protection category almost a decade ago and has led the way in defining the architecture, business model, and user experience our customers now expect. This investment and our continued, rapid growth is further validation of our vision for a simple, open, and unified data protection and management platform."

In the last year, the company's data under management has grown by more than 40 percent as Druva supports industry leaders, disruptors, and pioneers including GameStop, Marriott, NASA, National Cancer Institute, Pfizer, and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

"The last 12 months have underscored how organizational agility is at a premium, and IT leaders are increasingly turning to cloud technologies to increase business resilience and velocity," added Phil Goodwin, research director, IDC. "Companies able to simplify complex data protection processes, particularly by leveraging the cloud, can gain strategic advantage through better data availability and Druva Cloud Platform is architected to make it a compelling choice for organizations navigating cloud migrations."

Cloud adoption will reach a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.7 per cent, Gartner, Inc. forecasts. As data grows exponentially in parallel to this new operating model, traditional data protection based on hardware and software is no longer scalable or cost-effective. Instead, businesses need a new approach that can be deployed from anywhere, protect data across the enterprise, and deliver it securely as a service. Only solutions built natively in the cloud will be able to successfully deliver all this functionality and, 40 percent of organizations will supplement or completely replace traditional backup applications with cloud-based solutions by 2022, according to Gartner, Inc.