Editor’s Note: This story first appeared in the Austin Business Journal [subscriber content]. We've republished it here in an abbreviated format.
A Cloud Guru, an online technology education startup, is among the companies that seem to be thriving amid the pandemic.
The business — which provides training for cloud-computing skills for individuals and businesses — has just provided the most in-depth look at its financial metrics, announcing Wednesday that it has achieved $80 million in annual recurring revenue and signed a significant number of new customers.
Brothers Sam and Ryan Kroonenburg founded A Cloud Guru in 2015. Its global headquarters is in Austin, where it has its largest office with about 150 people, with additional outposts in Keller just outside London and Melbourne, Australia. The total company headcount is about 370 and it has raised more than $42 million from investors, including a $33 million round announced in April 2019.
For software-as-a-service companies like A Cloud Guru, annual recurring revenue refers to the amount of revenue the business would bring in in a year based on currently signed contracts. Reaching $80 million in ARR in about five years is quite fast. Consider that WP Engine, founded in 2010, disclosed in January 2019 it had achieved $132 million in annual recurring revenue. Snow Software AB, a maker of software management software based in Stockholm, Sweden, with a regional headquarters in Austin, announced June 30 it had surpassed $100 million in ARR after being founded in 1997.
A Cloud Guru reached the $80 million ARR mark through organic and inorganic growth. Last November, it had annual recurring revenue of about $25 million, President Katie Bullard said. Then in December it acquired Keller-based Linux Academy, which roughly doubled its ARR, and the combined company has continued to grow since then.
Bullard attributed the growth to the wider migration of businesses to the cloud, which predates the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as to the sudden rush to remote work during the crisis and then a demand for online education tied to the cloud.
"They're having to learn virtually, and in some ways they have more time to learn virtually as well," said Bullard, who joined A Cloud Guru around the time of the Linux Academy acquisition and is its top executive in Austin. "So we're seeing those three things really coming together, especially over the last four to five months."
Read the rest of the story in the Austin Business Journal [subscriber content].
