This profitable Google-backed startup just inked a key deal with SAP as it eyes a 2019 IPO (ADR, BOX)
Egnyte is a profitable cloud storage startup backed by GV (formerly Google Ventures) and Kleiner Perkins, among others. Egnyte CEO Vineet Jain is eyeing a 2019 IPO for the company, with no more venture funding between now and then. The company just inked a deal with SAP that will bring its cloud storage service to more customers in big businesses. Cloud storage company Egnyte, a rival to Dropbox and Box with funding from the likes of GV (formerly Google Ventures), likes to do things a little differently.
Rather than focus on growth at all cost, Egnyte has long made profitability its main goal — a goal the company says it finally achieved earlier this year. CEO Vineet Jain tells us that the company will do $100 million in revenue this year, and that the company doesn't need any more funding ahead of a planned IPO in 2019.
And Jain says the partnership Egnyte is announcing on Tuesday with database giant SAP is not the typical press release partnership where two companies pat each other on the back without ever actually delivering anything.
"They are nothing more than marketing exercises," says Jain.
The new partnership brings Egnyte-powered document management capabilities to the SAP Cloud software suite. It's a deal that opens Egnyte up to new customers, while adding the company's know-how to the SAP Cloud.
"For us, this is a very strong part of extending our strategy," Jain says. He says the partnership strategy is "high impact, not a cluster bomb."
The actual partnership
Egnyte VP of Product and Ecosystem Ronen Vengosh tells us that SAP actually courted Egnyte for this partnership: SAP was "actively looking" for someone to plug a particular gap in their product lineup, and the company survived a "long process of evaluation," he says.
The actual partnership involves automatically attaching documents — like reciepts, work orders, or shipping manifests — to customer files, as they move around the SAP Cloud. The SAP Cloud powers many thousands of businesses, connecting employees with inventory and logistical data.
Reuters/Ralph Orlowski
Egnyte was brought in to fill a very particular hole. While SAP offers a similar document management tool that customers can install on their own servers, the company doesn't provide one for the SAP Cloud, which is hosted in the tech giant's own data centers.
Meanwhile, Egnyte's file storage system can be hosted on a customer's servers, in the cloud, or both. And with this integration, anything stored in Egnyte can be accessed straight through the SAP Cloud portal, or through the regular Egnyte apps and web interfaces. Everything syncs, no matter where or how it was uploaded.
"[Customers] can decide how fast or slow they want to move to the cloud," says SAP VP of Product Marketing Dan Lahl.
On a final note, this isn't the first time that Egnyte has floated the idea of an IPO. As long ago as 2013, Jain was saying that it was close to profitability and eyeing a 2015 IPO.
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