Intaclustr s Re a $500m exit

Instaclustr  started in Canberra by  Adam Zegelin, Ben Bromhead, and Peter Lilley in 2013 has been sold to NetApp - (capped on NASDAQ at $23b) for more than $500 million.

Instaclustr is a platform that manages and monitors huge data, and runs multiple, open-source tools such as Facebook’s Cassandra, Kafka and Elasticsearch.

Netappps Anthony Lye said the company had trialled Instaclustr’s services before engaging in M&A talks…. And were pretty excited as it would add significant value to its existing customers …….and then the talks began!!

Investors 

 The founders have a bevy of investors that supported them - each of them will have a payday!!!

OIF Ventures (formerly called Our Innovation Fund), Bailador, Artesian, ANUConnect Ventures and Spirit Super (formerly MTAA Super). Sydney Angels and Capital Angels

Instaclustr was advised by AGC Partners, Blackpeak Capital and Morgan Stanley.

CEO Peter Lilley  was excited to see NetApp sign up as a new customer, but at the time had no idea they were considering making a bid for the business.

Customers

Its customers include Atlassian, Doordash, Dream11 (an Indian fantasy sports platform) Clear Capital and Lendi.

NetApp have around 7000 customers who can use Intackustr 

Investor returns

OIF

For OIF Ventures, which first backed the business in its seed round in 2016 and then co-led its Series A raise, netted them. $100m - a 20 X ROI, 2X its entire $50 million first fund. (A double dragon) 

Jerry Stesel said with the fund’s three other exits in the last year – XM Cyber, Eftsure and Assignar – hasreturned, in cash, 3.5 times the $50 million raised for fund one, giving a 43 per cent net internal rate of return, which is in the top decile globally, just on the current markings! 

There are eight other portfolio companies in OIF’s including unicorn Go1, Advanced Navigation and cybersecurity start-up Kasada.

Bailador

In Bailador’s March update to shareholders, the valuation of its stake was $63.4 million, representing a 659 per cent gain on its investment. On the back of the deal, it notified shareholders on Friday morning that the value of its position had jumped to $118 million.

Boom 💥