Salesforce Helps Fund OwnBackup, A Salesforce-Focused Data Protection Provider

The company, which also unveiled its first Salesforce-focused data archiving technology, recently hired two new directors to develop its indirect sales business.

OwnBackup, a developer of data protection software focused on customers who have implemented Salesforce-based applications, on Thursday said it has closed a series C funding round worth $23.25 million.

Among the investors in the new round are Salesforce Ventures, the corporate investment arm of San Francisco-based Salesforce which targets investments in developers of technology aimed at extending the Salesforce Customer Success Platform.

With the new round, OwnBackup has received total funding of about $50 million, said Sam Gutmann, CEO of the Fort Lee, N.J.-based company.

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OwnBackup is 100-percent focused on Salesforce integration, and Salesforce is its only strategic investor, Gutmann told CRN.

"We're not necessarily limited to the Salesforce environment," he said. "Salesforce has 140,000 customers. We believe every single one of them needs a backup and recovery solution. We are currently at 1,000-plus customers. That's less than 1 percent of the total addressable market."

The OwnBackup platform was originally developed as a platform to support any SaaS relational database-based platform, but early-on decided to focus on Salesforce because of its size, Gutmann said.

"Our goal is to work with any enterprise relational database-based platforms," he said. "But most startups fail because they don't have a focus."

The bulk of OwnBackup's sales are direct, but that could change, Gutmann said. The company recently hired two new directors, one focused on developing business with ISVs developing new applications for the Salesforce ecosystem, and one focused on developing stronger ties with systems integrators who work with Salesforce, he said. "Our chief technology officer originally built this as a project," he said. "It started ramping up in 2015, but was focused initially on direct sales so we could be ready to train channel partners. However, there are very few actual channel partners working with Salesforce."

Gutmann declined to discuss OwnBackup's financial situation other than to say the company is investing in growth.

"We're not optimizing for profitability yet," he said. "We saw 100-percent growth last year, and we're seeing it again this year. We could be cash-flow positive now. But as we continue to see new opportunities, it makes more sense to invest for growth. The main use of the new capital is to grow our headcount to 150 by mid-Summer and 200 by year-end."

OwnBackup on Thursday also unveiled OwnBackup Archive, its first archive-focused offering. Gutmann said OwnBackup Archive provides Salesforce customers the ability to archive their data for compliance reasons and to increase operational efficiency by moving older data off the platform.