Druva Archives - Crunchbase News /tag/druva/ Data-driven reporting on private markets, startups, founders, and investors Wed, 24 Jun 2020 18:42:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.5 /wp-content/uploads/cb_news_favicon-150x150.png Druva Archives - Crunchbase News /tag/druva/ 32 32 Immigrants Launched Lots Of New US Unicorns, But Numbers May Be Headed Lower /venture/immigrants-launched-lots-of-new-us-unicorns-but-numbers-may-be-headed-lower/ Fri, 06 Mar 2020 15:27:10 +0000 http://news.crunchbase.com/?p=26161 A majority of the have an immigrant as founder or chief executive. But does that still hold true for the current generation of high-valuation startups?

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To answer that question, Crunchbase took a look at founders and CEOs across several groupings of startup unicorns. The research included the most heavily funded private companies, newly minted unicorns and companies that recently crossed the $5 billion valuation mark.

The short answer? Yes, immigrants are still heavily represented in the ranks of U.S. unicorn founders and CEOs. They hail from multiple continents, and are leading companies in sectors from e-commerce to crypto to pharmaceuticals.

The long answer? Yes, but maybe less so. Early data indicates the proportion of high-valuation U.S. startups founded or led by immigrants may be trending down some. One factor is the growth of startup hubs outside the U.S., making it easier for founders to launch companies in their home country. The other, most notorious factor: the hurdles of securing a visa as a would-be startup founder.

“There is no visa specifically for someone who wants to start a company,” according to , founding partner at , a Silicon Valley-based firm that invests in U.S. startups with immigrant founders.

While U.S. student enrollment of foreign nationals roughly doubled from 2007 to 2018, there hasn’t been a corresponding strategy to speed or simplify graduates’ pursuit of a green card, Mehta said. And although that issue predates Trump’s election, the current administration hasn’t helped, deciding not to implement an Obama-era .

Still, a striking percentage of funded private companies that crossed the $1 billion valuation threshold this past year are immigrant founded. Below, we take a look at 19 such companies, along with a look founders’ countries of origin.

We also look at the most heavily funded, highest-valuation private companies overall with immigrant founders and CEOs.

The big picture

If investors are backing fewer immigrant-led U.S. startups, it may be because there are fewer available to back. For the 2018-19 period, U.S. immigration declined to 595,000 people—the lowest level since the 1980s, according to one oft-cited . It’s a level that leaves even some members of the Trump administration’s inner circle concerned that immigration levels are to support economic growth.

Of course, one needn’t be a new immigrant to launch a high-flying startup. Many of the successful founders on our lists above immigrated years or decades before their companies took flight. The lists, overall, include immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children as well as those who came later, commonly to attend universities.

Lastly, we should keep in mind that immigration, like unicorns, venture funding and startup valuations, has historically been rather cyclical. The issues confronting immigrant founders today may very well fade away or morph into something completely different in coming years.

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Druva Raises $130M for Cloud Data Protection, Becomes Latest SaaS Unicorn /venture/druva-raises-130m-for-cloud-data-protection-becomes-latest-sass-unicorn/ Thu, 20 Jun 2019 15:09:20 +0000 http://news.crunchbase.com/?p=19139 , a SaaS startup focused on cloud data protection and management, announced today it’s raised $130 million in a round led by . The financing propels Druva into unicorn status with “just north of $1 billion,” according to Founder and CEO .

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Existing backers , , and some new investors also participated in the financing, which brings the 11-year-old company’s total venture raised to $328 million.


Built on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Druva touts itself as “a SaaS solution in a market dominated by legacy hardware vendors.” By offering its service as a subscription, it claims to be able to help cut costs for customers by “up to 50 percent” by eliminating the need for “unnecessary hardware, capacity planning, and software management.”

Druva’s offerings include backup, disaster recovery, archival and analytics solutions. It has more than 4,000 enterprise customers across a variety of industries including Pfizer, Marriott and Hitachi.

We asked the company for some growth metrics and Singh told me over the phone this morning that Druva has seen more than a 50 percent increase in ARR (annual recurring revenue) over the past two to three years. It’s also increased its headcount to 720 today compared to 430 at this time last year. With the new capital, Druva aims to cross the 1,000-mark when it comes to employees by this time next year, according to Singh.

It also plans to continue expanding geographically. Currently, Druva operates in North America, United Kingdom, Southeast Asia, India, Germany and Japan. It’s looking to expand into Australia and Nordic countries, Singh said.

The company also plans to use the new capital to invest in customer growth and retention, he added.

, managing director of Riverwood Capital, said in a press release that Druva’s growth since the firm’s original investment about two years ago has “surpassed” its expectations.

“Druva’s unique approach to the large and growing data protection market is transformative to the industry and is validated by some of the world’s largest companies and the most demanding customers,” he said.

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