Backblaze

The company was founded in 2007.

Services

As of August 2012, the Backblaze service provides automatic online backup services for all computer data without limiting the volume. Subscription fees range from $5 per month to $95 for two years. The resource already stores 40 petabytes (40 million gigabytes) of information: 100 million files arrive on hard drives daily, but the size of the client database is not disclosed. According to the company, the cost of one petabyte of information at Backblaze is $117 thousand, while at Amazon this figure is $2.8 million.

Backblaze operates in a very competitive market, dozens of companies provide such services, including Symantec, Acronis, Carbonite, Mozy, said Dmitry Chikhachev, managing partner of Runa CapitalChachev in August 2012. One of Backblaze's competitive differences is offering unlimited storage space for files. This is a rather risky model in terms of margin, Mr. Chikhachev believes. "The cost of supporting one user can begin to rise sharply if the balance of the ratio of new users to existing ones at a certain point in time changes towards existing ones. In early 2011, Mozy burned on this, "he warns. According to Dmitry Chikhachev, if Backblaze deduplicates (detects and excludes unnecessary copies of files) the data of all users on the server side, then unlimited storage will be organized efficiently, and this is a "serious technological plus." Backblaze stopped using such a scheme when it became clear that it carries legal risks and is unreliable; compression, deduplication and file encryption take place on the client side, says Gleb Budman.

Performance indicators

In 2011, the company's profit amounted to $202 thousand, and the value of net assets - $2.2 million. The company has been showing profit for two years in a row, says Gleb Budman, CEO of the company.

History

2021: Access to the Nasdaq Exchange

On November 11, 2021, Backblaze officially entered the exchange, placing its shares on the Nasdaq site under the ticker BLZE. As part of the listing, the cloud storage platform was valued at $582.5 million.

Backblaze set the placement price of its securities at $16, which corresponds to the middle of the previously voiced range of $15-17. According to the results of the first day of trading, the company's quotation rate rose by 24.4% to $19.9, and during the day growth reached 39.1% ($22.25).

The cloud storage platform has BackBlaze entered the exchange. TMT Investments invested in it

Backblaze sold 6.3 million shares on the stock exchange and raised about $100 million. In addition, the company's underwriters have an option to buy an additional number of securities (937.5 thousand units).

The Wirecutter New York Times, which specializes in reviews, recently called Backblaze "the easiest-to-use and best cloud backup service for most people." Before the IPO, TMT Investments, founded by Russians (registered in London), was invested in the company. By November 12, 2021, TMT Investments had 10% of Backblaze shares.

"TMT Investments invested $5 million in Backblaze in 2011. For a long time we were the only venture capital investor. It took 10 years for our share to grow about 15 times... The company itself has grown 30 times, "wrote Herman Kaplun, director of strategic development and co-founder of TMT Investments, on his Facebook page.

According to his forecasts, BackBlaze revenue in the next 12 months will be about $100 million.  TMT Investments itself plans to sell shares "gradually."

BackBlaze has Class B shares intended for executives and investors ahead of the IPO. Class B shares give 10 votes each against one vote in Class A securities. In the future, Backblaze plans to have a total of about 29.3 million shares in Class A and B.^[1]

2012: TMT Investments invests in Backblaze

In July 2012, TMT Investments entered the American market, investing $5 million in Backblaze data backup service. The deal between TMT Investments and Backblaze was closed on July 24. The companies agreed that TMT Investments will invest about $5 million in Backblaze in two equal tranches in two years. As TMT Investments Investment Director Artem Inyutin told Kommersant, if Backblaze management fulfills the plan for the year and the company reaches the necessary financial indicators, then the purchase of shares will be at its maximum estimate - $40 million and TMT will receive about 13.3% of the securities. Otherwise, according to him, the investor will receive a 19% stake in a year at a valuation of $26.3 million, respectively. "The price is floating so that the company's management has motivation to grow during the year," explained Artem Inyutin. The funds received will go to advertising, increase the company's staff, as well as to develop applications for devices on iOS and Android operating systems.

"We agreed to financing a few months ago, when we realized that the transaction would take place without compromising corporate culture, without losing a large share or control over the company," says its CEO. TMT acted in this deal as a "net portfolio investor," added Artem Inyutin. "The ideology of our fund is not to own control packages," he added

Having received the money, Backblaze management will develop a strategy for the coming year, and then new rounds of financing are possible, says Artem Inyutin. In the future, one of the development options is an IPO, but first you need to increase the customer base, adds Gleb Budman.

Backblaze developed without attracting external financing, not counting the 2009 investment from business angels in the amount of $370 thousand, says Gleb Budman, CEO of the company. According to him, from the moment of foundation until 2012, Backblaze received investment offers from 50 venture investors.