Slide is moving quickly to expand its presence in the managed services market. And investors appear eager to fuel that momentum.
The Norwalk, CT-based company announced it has raised $70 million in Series B funding, led by General Catalyst, with participation from Base10, Outsiders Fund, futurepresent, Vine Ventures, and a host of others. The company is also expanding internationally with a new U.K. office and a German data center to support MSP partners across the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa).
The investment comes roughly a year after Slide publicly launched its business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) platform for MSPs. This was one that CEO Michael Fass described as unexpectedly fast-moving in an interview with this ChannelPro Tech Editor.
“We have had one crazy year. It’s been amazing. It’s been well beyond our expectations.”
According to Fass, the company is now working with close to 1,000 MSPs, with nearly 4,000 BCDR appliances deployed globally.
For a startup that just recently emerged from stealth, the early traction reinforces the founder’s beliefs. Many MSPs feel underserved by legacy BCDR vendors that often rely on “old infrastructure, restrictive contracts, and support models that are not aligned with MSPs,” Fass said. Slide is looking to bring back some of the magic for MSPs.
A Crowded Market, but With Old Technology
BCDR is among the most competitive categories in the MSP tool stack. But Slide’s leadership said the underlying technology in much of the market hasn’t kept pace with modern infrastructure.
Michael Fass, Co-Founder and CEO of Slide
“Most of the existing products in the marketplace, especially in the MSP space, were built between 15 and 20 years ago,” Fass said. That gap, he argued, creates an opportunity for a platform designed from the ground up with modern architectures and MSP workflows in mind.
“We saw a unique opportunity to build a modern product that’s faster, more secure, easier for MSPs to manage, and that helps them grow their businesses and protect their end clients like they’ve never been able to in the past,” Fass said.
Investors appear to share that view. Fass highlighted that Slide’s backers were particularly drawn to the long-term growth of the MSP model itself.
“MSPs are the delivery mechanism for small and medium-sized businesses to receive IT services,” he said. “It is a huge market. It is growing rapidly, and MSPs are the center of delivery of all IT services to these businesses.”
What the Funding Will Enable
The Series B round will accelerate both product development and geographic expansion, Fass explained. He also noted that MSPs are responsible for protecting data across an increasingly wide range of environments with data living on servers, endpoints, cloud applications, and everywhere in between.
“MSPs back up and protect data that lives in lots of places,” Fass said. “There are lots of different backup products that MSPs are going to come to Slide to help them with.”
The funding will help Slide expand its engineering team, build additional capabilities, and deepen integrations with the broader MSP technology ecosystem.
“It helps us invest in our talent, invest in our team, and expand our ecosystem so we can integrate with all the other great products and services out there in MSP land,” Fass said.
At the same time, Fass emphasized that Slide intends to maintain its close connection with MSP partners as the company grows. “We talk to MSPs every day. They have great ideas about what helps them build their businesses and grow their capabilities, and we’re very responsive to their needs.”
Expanding Into EMEA
The company’s expansion into the U.K. and Germany marks its first major step into European markets. The move was driven largely by demand from MSPs already working with the company internationally.
“We’re going where the MSPs are and where we can be helpful,” Fass said. “We see demand across the Atlantic and across the Pacific.”
In addition to the new U.K. office, the German data center will address regional data sovereignty and compliance requirements for European partners. Fass said the company is already seeing interest from partners well beyond North America.
Looking Ahead
While Slide currently offers a single BCDR product, Fass indicated that the company’s longer-term vision is broader. “Right now we have a single product in the marketplace. We’re only covering one little speck of their world.”
The goal, he said, is to build a platform MSPs can rely on more broadly for protecting client data. “Our job is to be the destination for MSPs to go to protect their digital assets.”
Even as the company expands globally and adds new capabilities, one priority remains constant.
“I want whoever is sitting in this chair in 10 years to be talking to MSPs every day,” he said. “We were founded on the belief that the MSP ecosystem is special and that they deserve better. We built modern solutions to help them run their business and protect their clients’ digital assets. We’re going to grow with them.”
For a company barely a year into its public life, Slide has already gained meaningful traction among MSPs. Now, with $70 million in fresh funding and an expanding global footprint, the company can grow. The only question is how big a role it can play in reshaping backup and data protection for the MSP market.
Watch the full video interview
As ChannelPro’s online director and tech editor for over a decade, Matt Whitlock has spent years blending sharp tech insight with digital know-how. He brings more than 25 years’ experience working in the technology industry to his reviews, analysis, and general musings about all things gadget and gear.
Featured image: Matt Whitlock/ChannelPro
