Two years after a private equity firm swooped in with a $53 million deal, the bold vision Archive Social’s founder had is being realized through a string of buyouts.
Over the past three months, the Durham-based social media archiving firm has bought out two complimentary firms, swelling its headcount to 250. And the plan is to soon hire another 100, CEO Ray Carey said.
“We’re growing as fast as we can,” he said.
Thursday, the firm announced its buy of web governance software firm Monsido. And in June, the company announced its buy of Next Request, maker of public records request managing software.
Both deals allow Archive Social to grow its product portfolio, Carey said.
Company officials attribute their ability to expand through deals to a big move the firm made in 2019. That’s when growth equity firm Level Equity cashed out many of its early backers in that $53 million deal.
Founder and current Chairman Anil Chawla said at the time the move was about scale. That vision is being realized, he said Thursday. The Level Equity deal presented a fork in the road, he said. The company could keep on its steady growth trajectory of “base hits,” or blow it out of the park.
“The other path was to really take things to the next level and without outside funding, that’s very hard to do,” Chawla said. “The mission that we’re on now, it’s broader. It’s beyond social media archiving … we’re now talking about digital communication across the board.”
Carey sees a company that can help build trust when it comes to digital communications. In a time where social media communications can be essential, that trust has never been more critical, he said.
Carey said the deal for Monsido was driven by customer demand. Already, the companies shared more than 130 customers. For now, the brands – including both Monsido and Next Request – will keep their own separate identities. Carey said conversations are being had about what happens next. Carey declined to share the firm’s revenue, but said the profitable company had grown to about six thousand customers and is looking to hire “great people all over the globe,” including in Durham.