Remote access and support platform Splashtop has officially garnered funding of $50 million. The latest funding round was driven by Sapphire Ventures, with the company now being valued at $1 billion as per sapphire 1bsawersventurebeat. Others included NEA, Storm Ventures and DFJ DragonFund. The company is on an expansion spree, amidst the new remote working culture embraced by most businesses owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company, which is based in San Jose, California, was established in 2006 and known as DeviceVM back then. It has already attained profitability as per its official statements, with 160% of business growth in 2020. Splashtop has also recently confirmed that its remote access traffic has tripled.
Remote continues to be the preferred operational/infrastructural mechanism now, with several reports testifying to the same. Gartner, for instance, has prioritized anywhere operations for 2021, anticipating 48% of employees working from home in the post-pandemic scenario (as compared to 30% before the pandemic). This transition will make IT majors build more adaptable and flexible entities enabling people to work almost anywhere, allowing customers at all locations for service access and managing the rollout of business solutions via distributed networks.
Splashtop takes care of some crucial issues in this regard. With VPN (virtual private network) usage jumping up in 2020, the sheer volumes led to fast-depleting technological resources, slower traffic, and security compromises. Splashtop and other remote access solutions can be rolled out in the cloud or on-site. They enable businesses to ensure access to a particular application/device instead of opening up the whole network, like in the case of a VPN, for instance. This assumes even more importance, as the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has already issued warnings on issues regarding VPN usage.
CEO and Founder at Splashtop, Mark Lee, stated that small businesses and enterprises were being helped to work smoothly from home during the pandemic with Splashtop. This helped avoid VPNs that are not scalable and face issues in terms of security and reliability according to him. He also added that leading entities like BBC, NBC, Disney, and CBS are already leveraging Splashtop for video editing through Adobe Premiere Pro copies installed on local machines. Schools are deploying these solutions for enabling remote learning solutions that can access school laboratories with Autodesk, Adobe and other software that students lack at home. The Splashtop infrastructure is backed by ML, AI and data analytics, which are used for tracking traffic movements or cloud computing systems, issuing safety alerts in case any errors or suspicious activities are found.
Splashtop is also offering remote support on the cloud, enabling IT personnel to login and troubleshoot machines of employees from other locations. Splashtop provides enterprise-focused services with added features like SSO (single sign-on) with integration points for OneLogin, Microsoft Active Directory, OKTA, JumpCloud, OneLogin and many others. Companies may integrate the solution into enterprise solutions like Jira, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Freshdesk and more. Support teams can also assist end-users without switching from their chosen help-desks as well. Splashtop had raised $46 million earlier with the last funding round held almost ten years earlier in its DeviceVM days. The rebranding took place in 2010, adopting the name of the company’s remote support software. Splashtop has been profitable since 2015 and will use its latest funding round to expand swiftly, tapping into skyrocketing growth witnessed over the last year (which has ensured 60% in profit margins as per its official claims).
