Cirrus9, a Saint John-based managed cloud and data center operator, has acquired Cloud-A of Halifax, forming an nationally focused IT infrastructure and cloud services provider with operations in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Alberta.
The companies announced the transaction last night in a press release, but declined to reveal the financial details other than to say it was an all-stock deal. Cloud-A Co-Founder and CEO Brandon Kolybaba will remain with the merged group, becoming Vice-President and Chief Marketing Officer.
The Cirrus9-Cloud-A union will combine two companies on strong growth trajectories, and the principals believe the merger will actually accelerate the growth.
“We both [companies] have a particular offering that appeals to a certain type of customers, but some larger companies need both,” said Cirrus9 CEO Fred Bullock in an interview this morning. “They need a cost-effective offering for a portion of their needs, but for other they may want, perhaps, the securities-certification service or another service.”
He said the combined company will now be able to offer the range of services required by enterprise client. What’s more, the larger company will have greater visibility and may attract the notice of some companies that haven’t yet heard of Cirrus9 or Cloud-A.
The two companies complement one another as they’re in related but distinct businesses, and they have little geographic overlap. Cirrus9’s client base is largely in Atlantic Canada whereas Cloud-A so far has done business outside the region.
Cirrus9, whose revenue has more than doubled each of the last two years, operates data centre facilities, managed enterprise cloud infrastructure and related hosting services. The company serves both public and private sector clients in many industries including the automotive, energy, financial services, healthcare, and telecom sectors to name a few.
The company is a member of the East Valley Ventures stable of companies, having received investment from members of the Saint John investment and mentoring group in 2010.
Cloud-A offers a flexible infrastructure-as-a-service solution over the cloud for Canadian customers. It was formed in 2012 by Kolybaba, the Founder of Sheepdog Inc., and Dynamic Hosting Founder Jacob Godin , who collaborated with Dalhousie University in developing the product. They identified a need for an OpenStack-based elastic platform in which all the data is stored in Canada to take advantage of the country’s privacy laws.
“We doubled our customer base over the past few months,” said Kolybaba in the statement. “This will give us the platform we need to continue that growth at that rate and even accelerate it.”
Bullock said the two companies will continue to operate with own brand, but that the team is reviewing what longer range branding will be. “We each have our own following today and we do not want to abandon it,” he said.
Bullock said the company has no immediate plans to raise capital. But he added the accelerated growth may lead the company to consider a raise to finance the accelerated growth.
The Cirrus9-Cloud-A merger is part of a developing trend in Atlantic Canada in which startups are merging to accelerate growth by becoming bigger players. In February, Meductic, N.B.-based cymbal manufacturer Sabian Inc. bought drum equipment maker Billdidit Inc. of Sydney. Other deals are in the works.
