Published on the 24/09/2019 | Written by Heather Wright
Kiwi-made solution to join Idera’s data stable…
Kiwi data infrastructure automation company WhereScape has been acquired by US software house Idera for an undisclosed figure.
The deal, which comes just weeks after Spark’s Qrious acquired NOW Consulting – the Kiwi data consulting division of Wherescape – will see WhereScape join Idera Inc’s database tools business unit, which includes IDERA, AquaFold and Webyog.
Privately owned Idera specialises in database, developer and test management tools, and is the parent company of a number of B2B software productivity brands.
“The business had grown up enough to take this step.”
The Houston-based company’s products are used by more than 50,000 customers worldwide, spanning industries including education, financial, energy, healthcare, manufacturing, retail and technology. Its customer base includes The University of Notre Dame, Chevron, Saint Francis Health Services and Microsoft. The company claims a 500 percent revenue increase since 2013, but doesn’t disclose revenues publicly.
Michael Whitehead (pictured), co-founder and CEO for 17 years of WhereScape, initially in New Zealand and then globally, drew some parallels between the deal and sending a teenager out into the world.
“It’s 20 years since we set up WhereScape as a data warehouse consultancy and 17 years as a global software business, so after a lot of hard work, so many contributions from a load of great people, support from the best customers you could ask for, and many setbacks and successes along the way, the business had grown up enough to take this step.”
While Whitehead was constrained in what he could say about the deal, he did say that alongside the recent sale NOW Consulting it felt like ‘the end of an era’.
WhereScape was 52 percent owned by Pioneer Capital after it initially acquired a 35 percent stake in 2014 for a sum reported at “well North of NZ$10 million”. At the time, the company had 70 staff and revenue of NZ$21 million (which would have included the NOW team). Whitehead was the other major shareholder, with US directors also holding minority stakes.
David Morris, former NOW Consulting CEO and now head of Enable at Qrious, says the reseller agreement that Qrious negotiated, which saw it as the exclusive New Zealand reseller for WhereScape, will be transferred to Idera.
“With WhereScape now being part of the global software business, we can expect to see further investment and development of this product in the future,” Morris says.
Randy Jacops, Idera CEO, says the acquisition adds to Idera’s growing portfolio of cross-platform database solutions for big data automation and cloud migration.
“As the market shifts to support DevOps use cases for data professionals, WhereScape will be even more important to companies managing complex data environments across platforms and channels,” Jacops says.
“By focusing our product investment on ease of use, scalability and quality, we expect WhereScape to remain the leading data migration solution and drive more value for our 10,000+ customers.”
“WhereScape solves a significant challenge for data infrastructure projects by automating tasks like building data pipelines while consolidating multiple tools and disparate skills into a cohesive solution,” says Idera general manager for WhereScape, Matt O’Connell.
The Kiwi company has more than 700 customers for its offerings which include WhereScape RED, WhereScape 3D and WhereScape Data Vault Express.
The acquisition follows Idera Inc receiving new minority investment from global private markets investment manager, Partners Group in May. Its investors also include HGGC, TA Associates and company management.
