Pioneering a New Era of Endpoint Management: Our Investment in NinjaOne
Announcing ICONIQ Growth’s investment in NinjaOne, a cloud-native platform for endpoint management, security, and visibility
By Roy Luo, Austin Liang, and Calvin Yeoh | February 6, 2024
NinjaOne co-founders, Sal Sferlazza and Chris Matarese
The complexity of corporate IT environments today cannot be understated. With the growth in remote and hybrid work over the past few years, employees now work across several different time zones and networks while using a mix of personal and professional devices. Coupled with the continued proliferation of cloud computing, the number of endpoints a company needs to monitor and secure has skyrocketed. In fact, more than half of today's workforce uses four to five different endpoint devices. Yet, a staggering 90% of organizations, as reported by Enterprise Strategy Group [1], struggle with effective endpoint monitoring. This challenge underscores a critical gap in modern endpoint management.
Enter NinjaOne, a cloud-native platform built from the ground up for managed service providers (MSPs) and IT teams to manage the IT needs of customers of the modern era, combining endpoint management, remote monitoring, patch management, and automation capabilities in a single, unified platform. Since its inception in 2013, NinjaOne has grown to manage more than seven million endpoints for its 17,000 customers across 80 countries, ranging from MSPs like Network Coverage and Prime Care Technologies to IT teams at Hello Fresh, Nissan, and Nvidia, and the public sector like the State of California and University of Oxford. We are proud to lead their $231.5M Series C round, along with seasoned operators, including Frank Slootman (Chairman and CEO, Snowflake) and Amit Agarwal (President, Datadog).
When we first met Sal Sferlazza, Co-Founder and CEO, and Chris Matarese, Co-Founder, President, and CFO, we could tell that they were deeply passionate about revolutionizing the IT industry. Their prior background in founding various MSP software businesses provided them with firsthand insights into the problems customers faced with traditional endpoint management solutions, which ranged from inadequate customer support to lack of cloud-native solutions to aggressive sales tactics. Not to mention, many of these legacy solutions turned to bolt-on acquisitions over the years that ultimately increased technical debt, leading to a further decline in product and customer experience. Emboldened by the lack of innovation from the IT landscape, Sal and Chris set out to build a modern endpoint management solution that put product and customers first.
We believe the key to NinjaOne’s success is Sal and Chris’ extensive technological expertise, industry experience, and unwavering commitment to organic product development without compromising on quality and customer experience. Feedback from NinjaOne customers underscores this, as they praise the platform’s superior product, delightful user experience, and ease of use. Customers also talked about how they saved hours of manual workflows through NinjaOne’s policy-based automation engine. But it's not just about the technology – NinjaOne's exemplary customer care and support have fostered a sense of true partnership among its users, a sentiment that's reflected in their top ratings across multiple categories on G2.
This customer-centric approach and Sal and Chris’ deep understanding of the specific needs of their customers also shapes NinjaOne’s product development. While users relied on NinjaOne for robust endpoint management, remote monitoring, and patch management, they still faced the inconvenience of using outdated, cumbersome tools for essential IT functions like backup and restoring files and devices. Recognizing this, Sal and Chris worked closely with their customer base to identify pain points and gather feedback. After months of dedicated development, they successfully integrated backup and data protection into the NinjaOne platform, a move that was eagerly welcomed by their users. This enhancement not only reduced costs by eliminating point solutions but streamlined IT workflows by allowing customers to further consolidate their operations within NinjaOne in a single pane of glass.
We are thrilled to partner with Sal, Chris, and the entire team, and support NinjaOne on their industry-defining mission to usher in an era of modern endpoint management. Welcome!
1 Managing the Endpoint Vulnerability Gap: The Convergence of IT and Security to Reduce Exposure; Dave Gruber, Principal Analyst; Gabe Knuth, Senior Analyst; and Bill Lundell, Director of Syndicated Research; Enterprise Strategy Group. The views expressed in this presentation are those of ICONIQ Growth ("ICONIQ" or the "firm"), are the result of proprietary research, may be subjective, and may not be relied upon in making an investment decision. This presentation is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities which will only be made pursuant to definitive offering documents and subscription agreements, including, without limitation, any investment fund or investment product referenced herein. Any reproduction or distribution of this presentation in whole or in part, or the disclosure of any of its contents, without the prior consent of ICONIQ, is prohibited. This presentation may contain forward-looking statements based on current plans, estimates and projections. The recipient of this presentation ("you") are cautioned that a number of important factors could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the forward-looking statements. The numbers, figures and case studies included in this presentation have been included for purposes of illustration only, and no assurance can be given that the actual results of ICONIQ or any of its partners and affiliates will correspond with the results contemplated in the presentation. No information is contained herein with respect to conflicts of interest, which may be significant. The portfolio companies and other parties mentioned herein may reflect a selective list of the prior investments made by ICONIQ. Certain of the economic and market information contained herein may have been obtained from published sources and/or prepared by other parties. While such sources are believed to be reliable, none of ICONIQ or any of its affiliates and partners, employees and representatives assume any responsibility for the accuracy of such information. All of the information in the presentation is presented as of the date made available to you (except as otherwise specified), and is subject to change without notice, and may not be current or may have changed (possibly materially) between the date made available to you and the date actually received or reviewed by you. ICONIQ assumes no obligation to update or otherwise revise any information, projections, forecasts or estimates contained in the presentation, including any revisions to reflect changes in economic or market conditions or other circumstances arising after the date the items were made available to you or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. For avoidance of doubt, ICONIQ is not acting as an adviser or fiduciary in any respect in connection with providing this presentation and no relationship shall arise between you and ICONIQ as a result of this presentation being made available to you. ICONIQ is a diversified financial services firm and has direct client relationships with persons that may become limited partners of ICONIQ funds. Notwithstanding that a person may be referred to herein as a "client" of the firm, no limited partner of any fund will, in its capacity as such, be a client of ICONIQ. There can be no assurance that the investments made by any ICONIQ fund will be profitable or will equal the performance of prior investments made by persons described in this presentation.