Datto and TCV partnership made us take pause
Let me start off by saying we love Datto. We really, truly do. We love the technology, the people, its culture and their commitment to lead in the evolving market of business continuity. That said, today it was announced that Datto raised $75 million in a Series B investment round led by Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), a leading provider of capital to growth-stage private and public companies in the technology industry. According to Datto founder and CEO, Austin McChord, a TCV partnership will bring experience and expertise that will help Datto continue to be at the forefront of innovation as well as grow both domestically and abroad (click for press release).
For Invenio IT, as both as a long-term supporter of Datto and an Elite partner, that sounds good. However, any time new partners (and their money) come aboard, we naturally take pause. Of course, Datto does an excellent job of communicating with the public and its partners and today was no exception. Immediately following the announcement, a Q & A was issued regarding the Datto and TCV partnership to assuage possible concern. And, while so far everything sounds positive for their dedicated MSP partners, we naturally still have some questions about the future.
For example, Datto is growing at a rapid pace and are cash-flow positive so why not use internally generated cash to grow versus bringing in bringing in additional stakeholders? Or, how will new board members integrate into the decision making process? Will they slow things down? Technology needs to be quick-moving and thus far Datto has been nimble, which we believe has contributed to their success.
In addition, what does the product road-map look like? Will there be expansion beyond business continuity? Or perhaps will the additional investment help to provide opportunities to partner with larger enterprise clients–that would be great news (hint-hint).
We can hypothesize all we want, but only time will tell what the future looks like after the Datto and TCV partnership. With that said, Datto is an incredible company, with incredible leadership–and overall, we believe the best is yet to come. Carpe diem, Datto. . .let’s take on the universe!
