GSV Capital is the first publicly traded security giving growth equity investors access to the world's most dynamic, VC-backed private companies.
More about GSV Capital
Founded
2004Capital Raised
$104 millionInvestors
GSV Capital along with DFJ, Goldman Sachs, NEA, SVB and others.GSV Investment Theme
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Cloud/Big Data
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Marketplaces
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Sustainability
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Education
Overview
SugarCRM is an affordable and easy-to-use customer relationship management (CRM) platform, designed to help businesses communicate with prospects, share sales information, close deals, and keep customers happy. Thousands of successful companies use Sugar every day to manage sales, marketing, and support. SugarCRM offers a commercial subscription product and can run in the cloud or on site.
- GSV Thesis
- People
- Product
- Potential
- Predictability
Why We Like SugarCRM
CRM software is a large and rapidly-growing segment of the enterprise software market. SugarCRM can build a large and profitable business by capturing a modest portion of the overall market by offering a differentiated solution that enables customers and their IT solutions providers to customize CRM solutions utilizing an open source platform.
People
SugarCRM has an experienced management team led by CEO Larry Augustin, the founder of open source pioneer VA Linux. The Company was founded in 2004 by John Roberts, Clint Oram, and Jacob Taylor and today has grown into a firm with a sizable client base.
Product
SugarCRM’s product suite is differentiated from competing solutions because it is based on an open source approach and supported by a community of over 30,000 open source developers. Sugar’s application is accessible via computer, tablet, or mobile phone and can be integrated with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Customers and developers have complete access to the Company’s open source platform, making Sugar an extremely flexible CRM solution. As businesses grow, and as business and social networks evolve, Sugar can easily be modified, extended, and integrated to meet changing customer needs quickly and effectively.
Potential
SugarCRM has the potential to expand its market share in the CRM space because of the ease with which companies can develop, customize, and extend their CRM applications using the Company’s solutions. The size and growth rate of the CRM software market represent a significant opportunity for SugarCRM to build a large and profitable business.
Megatrends
Internet
Knowledge
Convergence
Brands
How Big Can This Be?
The CRM market was estimated at over $12 billion in 2011 and is expected to grow to $48 billion by 2020. SugarCRM can become a large company by capturing even a small percentage of the overall CRM market.
Predictability
SugarCRM’s business model is based primarily on subscription pricing and software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery, but the Company offers licenses for on-site deployment as well. The Company’s subscription business model is characterized by a high degree of recurring revenue, which offers a high degree of predictability.
Risks
The most significant risks facing SugarCRM are a highly competitive market and the challenges of managing rapid growth, particularly in hiring and operations.
GSVC percentage figures are based upon the fair value of each holding as of the quarter ended December 31, 2017, or the cost basis of the holding (exclusive of transaction costs) if the investment closed subsequent to December 31, 2017. In either case, these values are divided by the fair value of total portfolio investments of GSV Capital as of December 31, 2017.
