Cloudamize just merged with Blackstone-owned Cloudreach in a push for growth

CEO Bob Moul has officially led another company to an exit: Cloudamize, the Center City cloud computing analytics company founded by Khushboo Shah in 2012, has just announced it will merge with London-based Cloudreach.

No financial terms from the deal were immediately disclosed, but the U.K. company — which was itself bought by New York equity firm Blackstone earlier this year — acquired a majority stake in Cloudamize and will bring it into the fold as a new software business unit within Cloudreach that will retain its Philly stronghold.

With backing from Blackstone, the company is expected to roll out “substantial investment” in Cloudamize to develop an independent partner ecosystem for its offering, ramp up hiring and aim for expansion in the U.S. and internationally.

The deal, said Shah, is also expected to fuel hiring big time: Cloudamize looks to double in size over the next six months. Though the founder declined to disclose a staff count figure, that number was reportedly at 23 earlier this year.

“We’re going to be adding a significant amount of jobs in Philly,” Shah told Technical.ly Wednesday. “We’re going to accelerate our product development and continue to build Cloudamize’s platform reach.”

Along with cofounder Shah, CTO Stephan Bohacek will join the leadership team at the new business unit, as is CEO Bob Moul. Specific roles are in the process of being defined.

“I am very happy for Khushboo and Stephan who have both worked so incredibly hard to build this business,” said Moul in an emailed statement Wednesday. “Nothing could be more satisfying and validating to a founder than to have an investment firm the size and stature of Blackstone see the value in your company and want to partner with you to scale it globally. I’m also happy for Philly as this will mean a significant number of new tech jobs for the city in the years ahead.”

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Without numbers on hand it’s hard to make a mathematical, independent call on how big a win this was for Cloudamize, a venture-backed company born of Dreamit’s 2012 fall cohort.

By our count, Cloudamize has rallied at least $2.2 million so far from a group of (mostly) local investors: MissionOG, Richard Vague’s Gabriel Investments and DreamIt Ventures all backed the company — $1.2 million in 2013, and then another million in 2016 after Moul took the helm.

Thus far, the Center City company was delivering: per its latest numbers, in Q1-2017 revenues were five times that of the same period in 2016. Just in that quarter, sales “nearly doubled 2016 as a whole,” according to Moul.

Another number to throw into the mix: Blackstone has over $100 billion (with a B) in private equity assets. It’s a peek at the depth of the pockets now backing the Philly company.

So, was this a win, not only for the company but for Philly also? Shah is quick to say “absolutely,” and points to the potential of job growth in the area.

In many ways, the deal is reminiscent of the RJMetrics story: an up-and-coming software firm lands an exit with a larger org that then sets up a Philly beachhead.

“This disabuses people of the notion that real high tech is in Silicon Valley, which is absolutely not the case,” Cloudreach Head of Parnerships Peter Richards told Technical.ly. “We have presence in Atlanta, Dallas, New York, Chicago and including Philly helps us fill that out. You will see some Cloudreach process within Philadelphia which is something we’re excited about.”