A Cloud Guru Acquires largest competitor, Linux Academy

A Cloud Guru says buying rival Linux Academy makes it the world’s largest cloud computing training library.

A Cloud Guru co-founders Sam and Ryan Kroonenburg. Source: Supplied.

Fast-growing Australian enterprise start-up A Cloud Guru has acquired its largest competitor, Linux Academy, a move the company says makes it the largest cloud computing training library in the world.

As part of the acquisition Bain Capital Tech Opportunities has made an undisclosed investment into A Cloud Guru, with Bain executive Darren Abrahamson to join the company's board.

Existing investors Elephant, Summit Partners and AirTree Ventures also participated in the round.

William Blair & Company acted as financial advisers to Linux Academy and terms of the deal were not disclosed.

A Cloud Guru CEO Sam Kroonenburg said 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, he said.

The newly-combined offering will feature hands-on training for cloud computing (AWS, Azure & Google Cloud), DevOps, containers, security, big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

“We believe anyone, anywhere can grow their cloud skillset and achieve a brighter future,” said Mr Kroonenburg, who founded the company with his brother Ryan.

“Together with Linux Academy, we can ensure that each customer experiences the highest quality and most relevant content throughout their continuous learning path.”

AirTree Ventures partner James Cameron said A Cloud Guru became one of the fastest growing companies to come out of Australia by foreseeing how significantly digitalisation would transform every type of business.

"It has already helped more than one million people re-skill to remain competitive in the digital world, including everyone from coal miners to call centre operators," he said.

"Now with the largest content library for cloud and developer training in its arsenal, we can only see it staying on this trajectory of phenomenal global growth.“

The Melbourne-based company has over 400 employees worldwide and has now helped more than 1.5 million people learn cloud computing.

“I’m thrilled for our students. They are the true winners in this combination of two best-in-class cloud training providers,” said Linux Academy CEO Anthony James.

“Our student-first missions are completely aligned, and we truly are better together.”