Tectonic shifts in information technology strategies are hard to navigate, even for the biggest companies on the planet. The rise of cloud computing has made this especially hard for small and medium-size companies, and Seattle’s SkyKick just raised another $40 million to help make this transition easier.
SkyKick (#51 on the GeekWire 200) builds software for consulting companies and service providers that small-and-medium-size businesses use to help them build an IT strategy, and business is booming, according to co-founders and co-CEOs Todd Schwartz and Evan Richman. But rather than court venture capitalists as it looks to grow headcount significantly over the next few years, SkyKick has once again tapped an insider network of investors that includes people such as Navin Thukkaram, Tim Ferriss, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, and Craig Nerenberg.
“It’s a little non-traditional,” Schwartz acknowledged in an exclusive interview with GeekWire. “We found a set of investors who were long-term oriented, and they’ve been very excited about how we’ve grown and executed the investment plan.”
SkyKick’s products are designed for its customer base of over 20,000 service providers worldwide to help their clients execute a cloud computing strategy. The flagship product, Migration Suites for Office 365, assists those service providers in moving a company’s email and office productivity software from hosted packages to the Microsoft-hosted Office 365, and other products help those providers set up cloud backup services for their clients.
One service the Seattle company doesn’t offer is higher-level cloud management services, and that might be something it has in mind as it builds out its product road map with the new funding. The co-CEOs declined to comment on specific plans, but that seems like a natural place for expansion beyond office productivity and backup services.
SkyKick plans to hire “across the board” with its new capital, focusing on its Seattle headquarters but also looking to boost engineering, sales, marketing, and support across its worldwide offices in Amsterdam, Sydney, and Tokyo, Schwarz said. The company currently has 150 employees around the world, and with this new round it has raised $65 million to date.
