Cisco pal SimpliVity accelerating IPO?

Hyperconvergence start-up SimpliVity has hired a CFO in what may be prelude to an IPO. The company tapped finance veteran Tom Beaudoin to help steer SimpliVity through “hyper-growth” mode.

SimpliVity, which has a co-marketing arrangement with Cisco, posted 250% year-over-year bookings and 35% growth in its employee base since the beginning of the year. In March, the company landed $175 million in Series D financing and says it has a valuation of more than $1 billion.

Cisco helps with that. The companies bundle UCS rack mount servers with SimpliVity’s OmniStack Integrated Solution compute/storage/networking/virtualization hyperconverged infrastructure, and it’s reported to be going nicely. The Cisco/SimpliVity combination competes with VMware’s EVO:RAIL system.

Beaudoin is a 35-year practitioner and he comes to SimpliVity from Nuance Communications, where he spent the past seven years as CFO. But before that was president, CFO and COO of camera maker Polaroid as it was going through an operational transformation. Previously, he held senior finance positions at Parametric Technology, i2, Compaq, and Digital Equipment Corp.

“Tom is a significant addition at this pivotal point for the company, as we accelerate our growth trajectory and address the unprecedented demand for our market-leading hyperconverged infrastructure solutions,” said CEO Doron Kempel. “Tom will be instrumental in building the financial systems and strong processes required for advancing SimpliVity’s future.”

SimpliVity made several executive moves recently to navigate its impressive growth, and Kempel mentioned IPO plans for 2016.

Is Beaudoin the last piece in preparation for that IPO? Kempel issued this statement via e-mail:

SimpliVity is laser-focused on growing the business and scaling the company to meet the explosive demand for our innovative hyperconverged solutions. At the same time, we’re continuing to reinforce our internal infrastructure and strengthen our leadership team with experienced veterans so we can evaluate a public offering when the timing is right.

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