After years of strong growth and profitability, Appfire, a Boston area-based provider of software development apps, has surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue — a major milestone helped along by the rapid digitization of virtually every industry, says Randall Ward, the company’s founder and CEO.
“We are noticing a fundamental shift in the way businesses operate as more of our customers move from an on-premise model toward subscription-based data center and cloud environments,” he said in a statement. “This trend will only accelerate in the coming years as customers search for scale and added flexibility.”
Founded in 2005, Appfire was among the first partners of Australian software developer Atlassian, then it transitioned to a product company in 2013. It has since established itself as a leader in developing, launching and distributing apps through the Atlassian Marketplace, helping with everything from workflow automation to business intelligence for major brands like Starbucks and Google.
The company was bootstrapped for about 15 years until it received a $49 million investment from Silversmith Capital Partners in June of 2020. Less than a year later, it got another $100 million from TA Associates, with plans to expand globally and grow its app portfolio to meet the demands of its ballooning customer base. Appfire has also acquired about a half dozen companies within the Atlassian ecosystem.
“We have great relationships, a ton of data to guide us, and a strong cash position so that we can work with the categories of products where we know we can add the most value to the teams being acquired as well as the customers we can serve together,” Ward told Built In after the $100 million raise in March. “We’ve had this vision for a while of partnering and teaming with the best in our space. Now, we have the means to do that at the scale we think is necessary for our goals of 2021 and beyond.”
Today, Appfire claims to have more than 30,000 customers, including 55 percent of Fortune 500 companies, as well as 500 employees in more than 20 countries. In light of this recent milestone, the company says it will continue to invest in its product and grow its team, with dozens of open tech positions available at its offices all over the world.
