Aussie brothers strike it rich after US firm snaps up ‘bedroom startup’ for $2bn
By Cara Waters June 3, 2021 — 2.19pm https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/aussie-brothers-strike-it-rich-after-us-firm-snaps-up-bedroom-startup-for-2bn-20210603-p57xpo.html Melbourne brothers Sam and Ryan Kroonenburg have struck it rich after their online learning startup was snapped up by US giant Pluralsight in a deal that values the company at more than $2 billion. The Kroonenburg brothers started A Cloud Guru just over five years ago after Sam built the online training provider in four weeks from his bedroom. It has grown to $116 million in revenue driven by the shift to online education and cloud storage. A Cloud Guru teaches people how to use cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform and has more than 2.5 million users around the world. The startup is backed by local venture capital firm Airtree Ventures alongside US-based Summit Partners and Elephant, and has raised a total of $55 million in funding. While the terms of the deal have not been confirmed, sources with knowledge of the transaction who asked to remain anonymous said it was worth over $2 billion. This would make it one of Australia’s most valuable startup exits alongside US private equity giant KKR’s purchase of accounting platform MYOB for $2.2 billion in 2019. Sam Kroonenburg said it was “an exciting moment” for the team and both A Cloud Guru and Pluralsight were founded to solve the same problem of ‘democratising’ access to technical education. RELATED ARTICLES + Sam Kroonenburg, chief executive and co-founder of A Cloud Guru which provides online training in cloud computing skills + Start-ups: The education start-up doing what universities can't “I am excited by the next phase of our mission in which together we will build the next-generation platform for hands-on learning across all of technology,” he said. “One thing I am able to confirm is I will be staying at Pluralsight long term to continue to lead and drive our cloud training efforts.” The entrepreneur hadn’t had much chance to celebrate as he is stuck in Melbourne’s lockdown while juggling caring for his five children and said “a restaurant delivery is probably as good as it gets right now”. Airtree Ventures partner James Cameron said it was amazing to see a company go from nothing to such an acquisition of that scale in five years. “We are thrilled for the team and it is easily one of the fastest-growing companies we’ve worked with,” he said. “It’s a result that speaks to the maturing ecosystem as a whole that you can have companies that go from nothing to outcomes like this in five years.” Mr Cameron said A Cloud Guru tapped into three “mega trends” the rise of online education, the cloud, and the growing number of “citizen developers” - ordinary people retraining to becoming software engineers. “It’s a crystallisation of a thesis we’ve had all along that you can build big global businesses out of Australia and by having access to venture markets in Australia it gives them the fuel they need to grow faster,” he said. “It’s a big deal obviously for us but also for the ecosystem more generally.” Aaron Skonnard, co-founder and chief executive of Pluralsight, said the deal enabled the company to provide an “all in one solution” for cloud skill development. “Technology is the number one differentiator for all businesses and the technology skills of your team is what determines success or failure,” he said. “Nowhere is that more apparent than with cloud technologies.” -- _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
