Data protection startup Druva crosses $100 mn in annual recurring revenue

Druva, a data-protection start-up that counts the US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) and drugmaker Pfizer among its customers, on Tuesday said it had surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR).

Fuelled by an increase in adoption of cloud-based services and a shift to software-as-a-service delivery for data protection, Druva has almost tripled its annual revenue in three years. This June, the company, based in Pune and California, raised $130 million to become a ‘unicorn’, or a startup valued at $1 billion or more. The firm said the latest milestone was a testament to the growing demand for a new approach, free of legacy hardware, to protect data, irrespective of type and source, in a centralised and secure manner.

“There is only one technology capable of keeping pace with today’s demand for rapid innovation, on-demand scalability, robust security and sheer compute power — that is cloud,” said Jaspreet Singh, founder and chief executive, Druva. “Customers trust us to help them successfully transform their businesses through cloud. With our depth of workload coverage and seamless platform, they can immediately experience substantial cost savings, continuous innovations, and enhanced security every day.”

As enterprises undertake digital transformation initiatives, the cloud is increasingly seen as a way to drive innovation, enhance customer experience, power collaboration, and ensure compliance. The shift to cloud as a de-facto environment for business will only accelerate in the years to come. According to Gartner, 80 per cent of enterprises will migrate entirely to cloud and close their on-premises data centres by 2025. Built entirely on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Druva is helping companies successfully enter the cloud era through radically simple data protection and management.

More than 600 customers rely on Druva to protect data centre workloads, a number that has grown by 70 per cent in a year. Over 800 customers are protecting their cloud workloads (SaaS applications and AWS workloads), a number that has almost doubled in the past 18 months. The firm said it now served more than 10 per cent of the Fortune 500 companies, including those like Flex, Hitachi, Live Nation, Marriott.

“The company's growth and major milestones this year have validated the potential we saw in Druva. The future of business is cloud,” said Tom Banahan, managing director, Tenaya Capital, an investor in Druva.