In the past few months, file sharing and cloud storage startups Box and Dropbox have raised massive amounts of cash at whopping valuations. Now, a third, much smaller Seattle startup has decided to sell out.

TappIn, a 2-year-old upstart formerly known as HomePipe Networks, has agreed to sell to San Antonio, Texas-based GlobalScape for as much as $17 million. The deal includes $9 million in cash, and an additional $8 million if milestones are met over the next three years.

Founded and led by former Aventail CTO Chris Hopen, TappIn had raised about $2 million to date.

GlobalScape plans to keep the TappIn business in tact, renaming it TappIn by GlobalScape. The service is for free to use, though a paid offering also is available for $9.99 per user per year for groups of fewer than 10 employees.

Chris Hopen

TappIn’s eight employees will join GlobalScape. In addition to Hopen, TappIn executives Parvez Anandam, Doug Wheeler and Andrew Tull will remain with the company in senior roles.

The acquisition comes just three months after TappIn changed names and rolled out new features to make it easier for consumers and businesses to access spreadsheets, music, videos and other files from any connected device or computer.

Hopen tells GeekWire that the acquisition will help propel the company’s products into new markets, noting that GlobalScape “completely got what we do and the value it could have in the market.”

“We started talking as partners and the conversation quickly evolved to an acquisition discussion,” said Hopen. “We felt this was the fastest way to create value in the market and work with a great team of people.”

Hopen said that TappIn’s goal is to protect data wherever it resides.

“We are expanding from a recognized secure file transfer leader into the cloud services, email security, backup recovery, and endpoint security markets,” he said. “Through this acquisition, we are in a better position to provide our customers with enhanced services and technology in the content mobility market that were not formerly available.”

GlobalScape posted net income of $611,000 on revenue of $5.4 million during the third quarter.

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