A significant investment from Bain Capital has helped Melbourne-based startup A Cloud Guru (ACG) acquire its largest competitor Linux Academy for an undisclosed sum, giving it the world's largest cloud computing training library.
Founded in 2015 by Perth brothers Sam and Ryan Kroonenburg (pictured), ACG is driven by a straightforward mission to 'teach the world to cloud'.
To date ACG has already helped more than one million users globally and worked with major global companies like Dow Jones and Qualcomm to reskill their internal workforces.
The acquisition of Linux Academy, described as the number one learn-by-doing cloud training platform, expands ACG's user base to more than 1.5 million globally and allows for an educational journey from beginner courses through to advanced enterprise training.
Bain Capital Tech Opportunities joins existing investors Elephant, Summit Partners and AirTree Ventures to help the gurus on their journey.
The company highlights the combined content library will represent the largest catalogue of hands-on training in the globe for cloud computing (AWS, Azure & Google Cloud), DevOps, containers, security, big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
"We recognize that our mission to 'teach the world to cloud' does not just start with the novice learner or end with the most advanced engineer, but is a mission that meets customers where they are at and enables them to be successful at their particular stage in their journey," says ACG CEO Sam Kroonenburg.
"By bringing together our complementary strengths, customers will now have a single partner to keep pace with the rapid evolution of cloud technology."
The group highlights the cloud services market is growing at a rate nearly three times that of the overall IT services market, but most enterprises aren't prepared for the cloud transition.
Nearly three-quarters of IT decision makers believe their organisations have lost revenue due to a lack of cloud expertise within their teams.
"I'm thrilled for our students. They are the true winners in this combination of two best-in-class cloud training providers," says Linux Academy CEO Anthony James, who will serve the combined entity in an advisory capacity.
"Our student-first missions are completely aligned, and we truly are better together."
ACG claims the combined company is growing revenues at a rate of nearly 100 per cent and today employs almost 400 team members around the world.
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