附近上门

San Jose, California-based took the scenic route to becoming a unicorn, but the remote work company hit the billion-dollar valuation mark with its closing of a $50 million funding round.

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The round was led by and includes participation by other long-time investors , and .

The new round is the company鈥檚 first since 2010, before it pivoted to its current cloud-based remote access offering that allows workers to connect to devices and applications while out of the office. The company saw 160 percent growth last year, as COVID-19 made remote work a necessity for many.

鈥淲e have become an essential product for business continuity,鈥� said co-founder and CEO .

The long road

Founded in 2006, Splashtop started as a fast-boot browser offering for netbook computers. However, Lee said it became clear as laptops evolved and the mobile market grew, , and eventually would dominante the space and a pivot would be needed.

About eight years ago, the company shifted to remote access, deciding not to raise more money at the time because they knew it would be a down round, Lee said.

The shift seems to have paid off, as the company has been profitable for the last four years and has annual recurring revenue of more than $55 million, Lee said. The company competes not only with other remote access providers such as and , but also security and VPN providers such as , Juniper Networks and , he added.

, president and partner of Sapphire Ventures, said investing again in Splashtop was an obvious decision considering the company鈥檚 growth, as well as the growth of the market for remote access.

鈥淧eople need to be able to login from their mobile device and work,鈥� Das said.

COVID-19

The pandemic only has grown the market for the company鈥檚 solution, Lee said. While Splashtop saw a lot of its sales directed toward the small business segment before COVID-19 hit, mid-market enterprises now make up about聽 20 percent to 25 percent of the company鈥檚 sales.

Lee said Splashtop will use its new money to continue to move sales upstream, as well as add to its 200-employee team and possibly even make acquisitions.

The company has no predetermined exit, but an IPO is a possibility as the company continues to grow, Lee said. The company has been approached by private equity firms looking to buy for the last two to three years, and even has been solicited by SPACs, Lee said.

鈥淲e like to back companies of consequence,鈥� Das said. 鈥淭hey have the ability to be that.鈥�

Illustration: .