As many companies shifted to operating remote workforces last year, the demand for cloud computing solutions skyrocketed. But even as some of those companies re-open their offices, the demand for cloud services isn’t expected to go anywhere.
On Tuesday, Seattle-based IT solutions startup SkyKick announced it raised $130 million in a financing round. Morgan Stanley participated in the round, joining the company’s existing investors. So far, SkyKick has raised a total of $200 million in funding.
SkyKick builds software products that help IT teams and businesses operate on the cloud. This includes tools to automate cloud operations, migrate data across cloud ecosystems, protect information through cloud backups, manage cloud presence and more. These products are especially useful for companies that have a significant amount of their data saved to the cloud, which is why over 30,000 organizations — including GoDaddy, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and others — use SkyKick products.
And demand for these products is rapidly growing. SkyKick says demand for its Cloud Manager product alone has surged more than 1,000 percent over the past year. The company expects the demand for cloud products to keep growing.
“We are still in the early innings of cloud automation in the SMB market. We’re excited to take this next step in our vision to build out the world’s most powerful automation platform for the IT services providers who serve them,” SkyKick co-founders and co-CEOs Todd Schwartz and Evan Richman said in a joint statement. “This capital will be used to fuel innovation across our entire product platform, and to accelerate our team’s efforts to empower IT partners around the world.”
In addition to investing in developing its product, SkyKick also plans to use the new funding to grow its team, allocating resources across its sales, operations and customer success teams. The company plans to hire an additional 100 people over the next 12 months, according to GeekWire. Over a dozen Seattle-based roles are currently open on SkyKick’s website.
