BOSTON, MA March 1, 2017 – Great Hill Partners, a leading mid-market growth equity firm which has raised over $5 billion in commitments since inception, has engaged Simon Anderson as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence to invest in cloud infrastructure, cloud software, SaaS and managed services businesses. Simon most recently served as CEO of DreamHost, a web hosting and cloud services company, which played significant roles in the growth of the OpenStack cloud computing platform and the WordPress web content management system. Simon was also co-founder and Chairman of Inktank, the company behind the widely used Ceph software-defined storage system. Inktank was acquired by Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) for $175 million in April 2014. Simon has broad experience managing emerging growth technology companies including leading strategy, business development, product, marketing, sales and operations over the last 15 years. He has degrees in science and law from Australian National University.
“I am excited to collaborate with Great Hill Partners to invest in and manage a significant platform company in the fast growing cloud and SaaS markets”, said Simon Anderson. “GHP has a talented team, strong track record, and a new $1.5 billion fund to put to work partnering with visionary founders seeking flexible capital and the experience to add value and a platform for growth.”
Great Hill Partners has been very active in a number of cloud, SaaS and managed services segments, investing in companies such as EvolveIP, Ascenty, Symmetry, Latisys, SecureWorks and BSwift. Managing Partner Chris Gaffney commented, “We tracked Simon while he was at DreamHost and Inktank, and have already collaborated with him in exploring a cloud platform opportunity. We share a founder friendly mindset and understand the key people, process and operational drivers of a successful high-growth company. Given Simon’s long and successful history with multiple startup and emerging growth companies in cloud and SaaS, we are honored he chose us as his partner for his next transaction and CEO role.”
About Great Hill Partners
Great Hill Partners is a Boston-based private equity firm that has raised over $5 billion in commitments since inception to finance the acquisition, recapitalization, or expansion of rapidly growing middle market companies in a wide range of sectors within the business and consumer services, healthcare, media, communications and software industries. Great Hill targets investments of $25 million to $150 million. For more information, visit www.greathillpartners.com.
About Entrepreneurs-In-Residence
Entrepreneurs–in–Residence (EIRs) are engaged as consultants to the GHP Funds to assist in the origination and evaluation of transaction opportunities, including market, strategy, product, sales, marketing, operations and management team assessment. EIRs are not employees of Great Hill Partners, LP or any of the affiliates of Great Hill Partners. Consistent with the Great Hill Funds governing documents, EIRs are consultants to the Great Hill Funds.
