Keepit has secured $50 million in an equity investment round to expand its vendor-independent, dedicated infrastructure for the SaaS data protection business.
The Danish company stores customers’ backed-up data in its own datacenters, forming the Keepit Cloud, based in Europe, North America, and Australia, and has some five million users. It has raised a total of $90 million in three equity investments in the past four years. There was a $30 million A-round in September 2020, today’s $50 million C-round, and a $10 million B-round some time between them. We’re told by Keepit that the additional $10 million funding came in December 2021 and was a small internal round.
Keepit was founded in 2007 and had raised $225 million in debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank by March 2023. At that time, Keepit co-founder and then co-CEO Frederik Schouboe said: “Silicon Valley Bank was prepared to take risks that other banks wouldn’t, and it is not possible to bank with mainstream banks if you are making a deficit in the subscription business – the regulatory environment is too strict for them to take part.”
A joint statement from the two co-founders, CEO Morten Felsvang and Schouboe, who is now chief vision officer, said: “This new funding will allow us to expand our reach and continue innovating the most advanced SaaS data protection solutions on the market. We’re thrilled to see such strong support from our investors, who understand our mission and share our vision for the future.”
Felsvang added: “Investing in product development right now makes sense: organisations worldwide are facing increasing demands for data sovereignty, security, and compliance. With this funding, we’re not just enhancing our solutions, we’re ensuring businesses can confidently protect their SaaS data in a fast-changing global landscape.”
This C-round was led by existing investor One Peak and EIFO, the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark. Jacob Bratting Pedersen, Managing Director, Partner & Head of Tech & Industry at EIFO, commented: “Keepit’s focus on cloud-native, vendor-independent data protection is what sets them apart. This investment is not just a financial decision for us – it’s about supporting a company that is revolutionizing the way organizations think about data security. We believe in their long-term vision.”
Keepit intends to use the cash “to accelerate its global expansion strategy, prioritizing key markets like the US, Europe, and other high-growth regions.” It hired Fahad Qureshi, VP Sales America and ANZ, in November, and strengthened its partner network. It will also further develop its cloud-native SaaS data protection software with “broader workload coverage and additional data management and intelligence capabilities for the enterprise.”
We think the “intelligence capabilities” point refers to GenAI, either to help in administering backups or to use the data in them for analysis, or both. The SaaS application backup business has seen a lot of development and activity this year, with Salesforce acquiring the Own Company, Veeam buying Alcion, Commvault buying Clumio, and heavy service developments by Druva, HYCU, and others. We also think Keepit could be viewed as a highly attractive acquisition target.