Chapel Hill's CData has acquired a European firm for its second-ever buy. And it did so without taking on debt.
CData CEO Amit Sharma described the buyout of Data Virtuality as strategic. He said the company evaluated multiple potential acquisitions in the space, settling quickly on Data Virtuality, scoring an introduction through an analyst.
“I think we have been the leaders in data connectivity for a very long time,” he said. “Data virtualization is a very good complement to our technology.”
Data Virtuality checked a lot of boxes. Sharma said it made geographic sense, as the firm had seen success in Europe but had less of a presence in North America.
“For us, it was a good complement in terms of technology, but also geographic split,” he said.
CData, which raised $140 million in 2021, had an advantage — the fact that it could pay for the deal from its balance sheet, Sharma said.
Sharma declined to talk financial terms, but said its first deal — forceAmp in 2021 — did require taking on a small amount of debt.
CData has been cash flow positive, he said. It has a conservative approach to spending, and this deal didn’t deviate from that strategy.
“We are a high growth company, growth is north of 40 percent. But at the same time, we take profitability very seriously,” Sharma said.
The addition of Data Virtuality will enable CData's existing enterprise customers to tackle large-scale data virtualization initiatives via a cloud-native platform designed to handle complex use cases.
According to the company, the deal markets a "new era" for the firm by providing customers with centralized data integration platforms that solve major data management challenges.
Data Virtuality was headquartered in Germany, with customers such as Crédit Agricole and New York University.
Sharma said the combined firm is hiring, primarily in Chapel Hill. CData has 375 employees, with 110 in North Carolina.
