Jitterbit has published a business update for its full financial year and has continued the momentum it revealed in its H1 update last September. As a private company, Jitterbit has chosen not to reveal revenue figures, indicating that its ARR has grown globally by over 100%. There were some other significant metric improvements in its release, such as:
- It has added hundreds of new customers, including: Johnsonville, Ethan Allen, Care.com and Virgin Australia.
- Customer retention increased to a record high (no figure, though).
- Employee numbers grew by 155 in 2022. LinkedIn has the total number at 351, though this is often inaccurate. The Jittebit careers site indicates the number is more than 500, with seven open roles.
Customers, partners and acquisitions contribute to the growth
In 2022 Jitterbit supported its expansion with the acquisition of PrimeApps in Turkey. This added to the 2021 acquisitions of eBridge Connections in Canada and Wevo in Brazil. Already in 2023, it bought US-based no-code platform vendor Zudy. It has now completed the integration of all four within Jitterbit.
The hyperautomation vendor also added or extended partnerships with AWS, BigCommerce, BMC, Samsung, ShipStation, Shopify, and THG Ingenuity. It continued to drive expansion using partners and launched the Powered by Jitterbit Partner Portal. The portal offers a one-stop-shop for existing partners to connect, build revenue, develop marketing initiatives and educate their teams.
Jitterbit has also seen growth across all the regions it operates within. With Wevo helping to power growth in LATAM, it has added more than 20 resell and referral partners since the acquisition. This has helped boost ARR constantly through 2022. It has also seen growth in EMEA, APAC and North America, closing several six-figure deals and adding hundreds of customers.
George Gallegos, CEO of Jitterbit, commented, “Jitterbit’s hyperautomation vision is resonating strongly across the global marketplace as demand for effective, unified integration and automation solutions continues to grow. Today’s forward-looking companies know success lies in streamlining operations to maximize revenue growth, and we are proud to help our customers achieve these goals. We believe hyperautomation is the future and Jitterbit is uniquely positioned to lead that charge forward, accelerating not only our own growth but that of our customers’ and partners as well.”
Product strength grows too
With the recent acquisitions adding new capabilities, Jitterbit has also invested in R&D to enhance its platform. As an API transformation company and advocate of hyperautomation, the company continues to add new connectors and improve existing ones. In 2022 it updated its Salesforce and HTTPv2 connectors and increased the number of native connectors by 250%. The underlying platform of Cloud Studio was also strengthened, enabling it to scale the platform to cope with twice as many users as in 2021.
In April, it added an App Builder to its Harmony Integration platform. The Low-code application development tool helps organizations rapidly build and deploy business applications up to 10x faster. The recent Zudy acquisition will further help increase users’ efficiency.
Already in 2023, it has launched a new Message Queue Service. This cloud-based, multi-tenant message queuing service is fully integrated into its Harmony Platform. It enables customers across industries to accelerate digital transformation and hyperautomation initiatives by simplifying complex automations and speeding up the deployment of new integrations. Although this feature is still in beta, several major customers in the EMEA region have already purchased the new service.
The firm also grew its library of technical documentation. It enhanced its online learning program, Jitterbit University. The hands-on and lecture-based training has been attended by a record number of learners who can learn and complete certification courses.
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
As firms race to digitally transform, they do so with an understanding that part of their journey will mean integrating different applications within their software stack. This is no longer about point-to-point integrations but hyperautomation that connects processes and data between multiple systems. At the heart of this hyperautomation lies APIs. API management platforms, such as Jitterbit, enable organisations to manage these connections and workflows efficiently, speeding up development and meeting organisations’ demands in a dynamic business atmosphere.
The Jitterbit platform enables organisations to manage these workflows by connecting applications, EDI platforms, and more with low-code and no-code platforms, making it far simpler than ever before. While the Jitterbit growth seems impressive in terms of percentages and the number of added customers, it does not clearly indicate how it is faring in a competitive market. Rivals such as Cleo, Boomi and Mulesoft also claim growth, and newcomers such as WSO2 and Gravitee are also growing.
Jitterbit last raised funding in 2020, when it attracted investment from Audax Private Equity. Will it now look for additional funding to accelerate that growth even further? If not, where is it on its journey? Is it large enough to consider an IPO? It is now seven years since George Gallegos told TechCrunch, “We expect to get to an IPO in three years”. While a delay and then COVID might have delayed that, is this still the next stage of the Jitterbit journey? KKR invested in 2016 in its Series C round. Is it looking to recoup its investment, or will it wait a little longer?
After all, Nicholas Hyde, Head of Client & Partner Group, Australia & New Zealand at KKR, said in an interview with Livewire, “We usually hold each investment for between five and seven years, and most of KKR’s private equity funds have a 10-to-12-year life.”
That seven year term is now up. Do the two recent momentum releases signal an exit by KKR? Additional funding or that long ago promised IPO?
