SAN FRANCISCO, February 15, 2021 – IGEL, provider of the next-gen edge OS for cloud workspaces, today announced that TA Associates (“TA”), a leading global growth private equity firm, has signed a definitive agreement to make a majority investment in the company.
TA joins existing IGEL investor C. Melchers GmbH & Co. KG (“Melchers”), which has been IGEL’s primary investor since its founding in 2001 and will maintain a significant equity interest in the company. After handing over the position of IGEL CEO to Jed Ayres last year, founder and former CEO of IGEL Heiko Gloge also remains as a minority stake holder and board member. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
IGEL also announced that Bill Veghte will join the IGEL Board as Executive Chairman. Veghte has decades of experience developing operating systems and bringing industry-leading technologies to market as a senior leader at Microsoft and HP, as a board member for a wide variety of companies including Xero, and as the founder of Athene Partners.
“With his network and his extensive knowledge of the industry, Bill will contribute to expanding and deepening the strong relationships that IGEL has built with technology partners,” said Gloge.
“IGEL is the market-leading edge operating system, delivering simplicity with manageability, security, and the flexibility that delivers a richness of experience at a time when customers need these capabilities more than ever before,” said Veghte. “I am pleased to be joining the IGEL Board at such a transformational time for the company and the industry, and to be supporting Jed and the team in accelerating IGEL’s growth.”
In addition to the naming of Veghte as IGEL Executive Chairman, Jonathan Meeks, Managing Director, TA Associates, and Stefan Dandl, Principal, TA Associates, will be added to the IGEL board. They will join existing IGEL board members Heiko Gloge, Managing Partner, and Nicolas Helms, Melchers Managing Partner. Together with Ayres and the leadership team, they plan to accelerate the company’s growth globally through increased operational and development bandwidth and significant go-to-market investments, including the further activation of channel partners, to ensure the wide-spread adoption of IGEL OS across increasingly remote and distributed end-user device estates.
IGEL has been on an expansive trajectory with triple-digit growth over the past five years in billings, margin and units. For the year ended December 31, 2020, IGEL increased revenues from recurring software products and services by over 150% year-over-year worldwide, supported by IGEL’s growing channel partner ecosystem. Today, IGEL OS is operating on more than 4 million edge devices and counting.
“The world’s digital workers have gone remote and we believe this new paradigm is here to stay. IGEL is at the center of this EUC revolution with solutions that meet the need for secure, simple to manage and cost-effective cloud workspaces,” said Ayres. “With new backing by TA and the experience of Bill to guide us, we believe that we have the resource depth needed to not only capitalize on this exploding global market need but also innovate quickly to remain strategically positioned for the future of edge computing.”
With the widespread shift to remote work and hybrid work scenarios, the EUC market is in transition, with increasing investments in virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and cloud workspaces. IGEL is a key enabler of this movement, providing the next-gen OS for cloud workspaces that reduces hardware costs and operating expenses with a more secure endpoint management and control platform for nearly any x86 device.
“We believe IGEL is setting the benchmark for the new era of computing on the endpoint, and is primed to drive rapid and sustainable organic growth,” said Meeks. “With strong market leadership and a solid history of innovation and execution, IGEL is uniquely positioned to fulfill the ubiquitous need for secure, manageable cloud workspaces to support remote workers from anywhere. TA is pleased to be partnering with IGEL on this journey.”
“IGEL was founded based on a vision to help customers realize the benefits of a more secure, manageable and productive edge device infrastructure,” said Gloge. “Today, we are delivering on this vision with both passion and prowess.”
“After supporting IGEL since its founding in 2001 as principal investor, we are excited by the opportunities presented with TA´s investment in IGEL,” Helms stated. “We expect that the partnership with TA will provide IGEL with the experience, market access and resources to help propel IGEL through the next phase of growth.”
About IGEL
IGEL provides the next-gen edge OS for cloud workspaces. The company’s world-leading software products include IGEL OS™, IGEL UD Pocket™ (UDP) and IGEL Universal Management Suite™ (UMS). These solutions comprise a more secure, manageable and cost-effective endpoint management and control platform across nearly any x86 device. Easily acquired via just two feature-rich software offerings — Workspace Edition and Enterprise Management Pack — IGEL software presents outstanding value per investment. Additionally, IGEL’s German engineered endpoint solutions deliver the industry’s best hardware warranty (5 years), software maintenance (3 years after end of life) and management functionality. IGEL enables enterprises to save vast amounts of money by extending the useful life of their existing endpoint devices while precisely controlling all devices running IGEL OS from a single dashboard interface. IGEL has offices worldwide and is represented by partners in over 50 countries. For more information on IGEL, visit www.igel.com.
About TA Associates
TA Associates is a leading global growth private equity firm. Focused on targeted sectors within five industries – technology, healthcare, financial services, consumer and business services – TA invests in profitable, growing companies with opportunities for sustained growth, and has invested in more than 500 companies around the world. Investing as either a majority or minority investor, TA employs a long-term approach, utilizing its strategic resources to help management teams build lasting value in high quality growth companies. TA has raised $33.5 billion in capital since its founding in 1968 and is committing to new investments at the pace of over $3 billion per year. The firm’s more than 100 investment professionals are based in Boston, Menlo Park, London, Mumbai and Hong Kong. More information about TA Associates can be found at www.ta.com.
About C. Melchers GmbH & Co. KG
Headquartered in Bremen, C. Melchers & Co. has been a private, owner-managed partnership since 1806 Melchers is one of the leading service providers for all those companies seeking to gain a foothold on the markets of the future. Their know-how and infrastructures have grown in the course of two centuries and today comprise a wide range of services and trading know-how in diverse areas of business. Their network of more than 50 subsidiaries in Germany and abroad with a focus on Asia makes Melchers a powerful, dependable partner for market expansion services. More information on Melchers can be found at www.melchers.com
