Datto (company)

Founded in 2007 in Connecticut by software programmer Austin McChord,[6] McChord initially built and marketed his own hand-made data backup devices. Securing his first customers in 2008, he afterwards built a system that allowed for data synchronization between two computers, before building a version of Zenith InfoTech that ran on Linux. By the end of 2009, the company had $70,000 in monthly sales. When a new Datto product in 2010 caused old systems to crash, a replacement system was designed from scratch: SIRIS was released several months later as a free upgrade. In 2011, Datto was credited with helping local hospitals impacted by a tornado in Joplin, Missouri retrieve their data. In 2011, sales were $9 million. The following year, they were at $25 million.[7] In 2012, in the midst of Hurricane Sandy, Datto employees worked throughout the duration of the storm to ensure MSP customer data was protected.[8]

In September 2013, the company raised $25 million in its first round of venture capital financing, which was led by General Catalyst Partners. At the time, Datto had 225 employees and had "posted four consecutive years of 300 percent annual growth."[9] The established business model sold products primarily through managed service providers.[10] By 2013 the company was continuing to focus on small and mid-size businesses, with clients such as Susan G. Komen for the Cure and several NFL teams.

In 2014, Datto Inc. purchased Backupify, a cloud-to-cloud backup company. Backupify focused on backing up data on servers, complementing Datto's focus on local or private clouds.[4]

In November 2015, the company garnered $75 million in a Series B funding round mostly led by Technology Crossover Ventures.[4] In 2015, it became Connecticut's first "unicorn" company.[4][5]

In early 2017, Datto acquired Open Mesh.[11]

Datto was acquired by Vista Equity Partners for around $1.5 billion in late 2017. As part of the deal, Datto merged with the Vista portfolio company Autotask Corporation and Austin McChord remained CEO of the combined company.[5]

McChord stepped down as CEO in October 2018, remaining on the board.[12] In January 2019, following the announcement of McChord’s departure, Datto named Tim Weller as it’s new CEO. Weller joined Datto in 2017 as chief financial officer before stepping into the chief executive role. Before joining Datto, Weller was CFO at Akamai, where he led its initial public offering, and CFO at clean energy technology company EnerNOC.[13]

In June 2020 Datto hosted its first MSP Technology Day with a focus on remote monitoring and management (RMM), resulting in 5,000 MSP registrations.[14]

In September 2020 Datto announced its intention to file for a potential IPO and filed the SEC S-1 form.[15]

In October 2020 Datto officially began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol “MSP”, selling 22 million shares to raise $594 million in its IPO.[16]

In July 2013 Datto acquired its UK distributor, Paradeon Technologies for an undisclosed sum and marked the start of Datto’s international expansion.[17]

In 2016, Datto opened its EMEA headquarters in Reading. Datto also opened data centers in Iceland and Germany and signed new distribution deals in Spain and Greece.[18] Additionally, in 2016, Datto released SIRIS 3 x 1 as the first available all-flash BCDR product with ransomware detection capability.[19]

In September 2017 Datto opened a new office in Amsterdam to serve the BENELUX regions.[20]

In 2020 Datto opened a new office in Copenhagen.[21]

Following the round of funding Datto expanded into Australia and New Zealand by opening a new office based in Sydney in late 2015.[22]

Datto acquired Gluh, an Australian company, for an undisclosed sum in July 2020. Gluh’s platform enables MSPs to simplify the procurement of IT products and services for their customers.[23]