Arcserve is coming out of a challenging few years with a new CEO and fresh funding.
Arcserve provides UDP backup software, 9000 UDP-powered appliances, SaaS backup of Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Salesforce, DRaaS, and OneXafe file accessed, scale-out, immutable object store, and backup target offerings. It has embraced cyber resilience – as have virtually all backup suppliers – and is a small player in a large market with many fragmented suppliers. Arcserve is owned by the private equity firm Marlin Equity Partners, which acquired it in 2014 and remains the majority owner after a merger with StorageCraft in 2021. It also has long-term financial backing from H.I.G. WhiteHorse Capital and Monroe Capital.
Prior Arcserve CEO Brannon Lacey left in March, becoming interim and then full-time CEO at software tester Worksoft. Just one month later, Chris Babel has been appointed in his stead along with a significant infusion in funding from WhiteHorse and Monroe Capital.
Mark Bernier, managing director at H.I.G. WhiteHorse, declared: “We are thrilled to welcome Chris Babel as the new CEO of Arcserve. Chris is a transformative leader and industry visionary who brings significant experience in establishing businesses as global leaders in the security arena. Our customers face an expanding threat landscape, and we are confident that Chris is the right person to lead the company as it continues its mission to keep global businesses and their data secure.”
Matt London, managing director at Monroe Capital, added: “Arcserve’s track record of innovation and customer commitment positions it at the forefront of the rapidly evolving data resilience market.
“Our investment will allow Arcserve to continue developing customer-centric innovative products and solutions globally. We look forward to supporting Chris and the leadership team as they enable more organizations to protect, access, and leverage their data through any challenge.”
Under Lacey, appointed in October 2021, Arcserve made a couple of mis-steps. March 2022 saw its StorageCraft Cloud Services, providing DR as a service, suffer extended unavailability issues due to metadata servers being improperly decommissioned. In other words, a self-initiated disaster struck a DRaaS supplier.
In February this year, it suddenly stopped selling its OneXafe Solo and Arcserve Cloud Services, leaving its MSPs to find replacements from other suppliers. OneXafe Solo, an appliance that streamed backup data to cloud services, was discontinued as Arcserve considered replacing its in-house services with external cloud suppliers. Upsetting channel partners, on whom you depend for business, is rarely a good tactic.
Babel joins Arcserve from VC and private equity-owned TrustArc, where he was CEO from 2010 to 2023, and is said to have turned the company into a global leader in privacy compliance and risk management. He explained: “Every day, the volume and value of data grows for businesses. Data has truly become business-critical and the lifeblood of organizations, making it imperative for businesses to ensure its availability.
“With this investment, we will accelerate Arcserve’s development of innovative offerings and help businesses address the crucial challenge of protecting and leveraging their data in the face of increasing cyber threats and AI opportunities.”
Arcserve claims it has 150,000 end-customers, and 30,000 partners. They’ll all be keen to see how he deals with product development and channel relationships.
