Enterprises have had a lot of choice when it comes to software that can help IT manage their workers devices, which has been especially useful in recent months, when many offices around the world have gone remote and people log into their systems from home. Small and medium businesses, however, are not as fortunate. They have long been ignored when it comes building IT management solutions that fit their needs.There are signs that this is changing. Atera, a startup that builds remote, low-cost, predictive IT management software for companies with less than 1000 employees, announced today a $77 million funding round. This is both a sign of the market demand and Ateras success in solving it. According to the company, Atera's investment is valued at $500 million.Tel Aviv-based startup has accumulated some 7,000 customers. It manages millions of endpoints computers across 90 countries. They provide real-time diagnostics using datapoints generated from those devices. This allows them to identify and predict potential problems with their hardware, software, and network.Atera's goal is to use the funding to both continue building its customer base and expand its product, specifically adding more functionality and AI to the AI it uses (and For which Atera has been granted Patents). To run predictive analytics, one technology that today is part of solutions targeting larger companies but often are absent from most of the software aimed at SMBs, Atera plans to use the funding to do so.In essence, we are democratizing capabilities that are available for enterprises, but not for the second half of the economy, SMBs," Gil Pekelman (Ateras CEO) said in an interview.General Atlantic is leading the funding. This is only the second time Atera has raised money. The first was earlier in the year, a $25m round from K1 Investment Management. Atera, founded in 2016, became profitable in 2017, and then deliberately lost profit in 2019, as it used cash from the balance sheet to grow. It was eventually bootstrapped through all this. It still has the cash it received in its initial round of funding earlier this year.Pekelman, who co-founded the company along with Oshri Moyal (CTO), describes Atera's remote monitoring and management approach. These clients allow IT managers to monitor the network from anywhere, no matter its physical location, just as if it were in one office. Atera collects datapoints from the devices that are currently receiving around 40,000 datapoints each second.These datapoints do not relate to the content of a person's work, nor any content. They are about how devices behave. Atera collects diagnostics on three major areas: hardware performance (networking and software performance), security, and security. Atera's system can detect when something is about to go wrong, and why a network connection might be not working properly. It also can identify suspicious behavior that may need a security-oriented solution. The third area is supplemented by integrations with third party security software Bitdefender, Acronis, and the issue of updated security patches to devices on the network.The entire system was designed to be self-service. Ateras products can be purchased online. There are no salespeople involved. In fact, most of Ateras' marketing is done via Facebook and Google. This is an area in which it plans to continue investing. It is not targeted at larger companies because of this. Other reasons include the need for customization and more complex service level agreements. It is also why Atera is so affordable: Atera costs $89 per month for an IT technician regardless of how many endpoints are being managed.Pekelman stated that our constituencies can have up to 1,000 employees. This is a market that has been in essence neglected. We are targeting the smaller market and care about these guys. Model is $89 per month per technician. This means that a company of 500 employees with four technicians pays $356 per month to manage their network.Investors are also interested in this model because it is profitable.Atera has created a unique platform that offers immense value to its customers. We are delighted to support the company at this crucial moment in its growth trajectory," said Alex Crisses MD, Global Head for New Investment Sourcing, and Co-Head, Emerging Growth, General Atlantic. We are thrilled to partner with this category-defining Israeli company. This will expand General Atlantics presence within the country's innovative technology sector, and mark our fifth investment in the area. We look forward to working with Gil, Oshri and the Atera team in order to help the company achieve its vision.
