Yorkshire-born tech company reaches $1 billion value

The product itself was born in a converted barn at a North Yorkshire farmhouse, with the founder being Michael Gould. The company is now headquartered in San Francisco with global offices on four continents and a customer base in more than 20 countries.

Anaplan has become the worldwide leader in cloud-based, enterprise-wide planning and modeling. It is aiming to unseat spreadsheets as the financial and planning tool of choice among global businesses.

Mr Gould said; “I started out in mid-2006, so it is coming up to ten years now. I left my previous job and spent a couple of years working by myself, based in Yorkshire, and brought in investment. By the end of 2010, the company had a head office in San Francisco. 2011 was the first year of sales.”

The initial idea was taken from that barn into an office near Mr Gould’s home in York - and they then started recruiting their first engineers. The company now have 70 engineers in their York office and, despite the impressive expansion, those Yorkshire-based employees play a key role. The core development of the product takes place in this region. Mr Gould said: “What they do is at the heart of what we do.”

Many businesses are using technologies that were created without today’s business challenges in mind. That is where Anaplan aims to step in and become the modern solution. Their customers can choose from more than 100 pre-built planning apps, from the Anaplan App Hub, or build their own apps.

Laurent Lefouet, Managing Director EMEA, said: “Every day we meet with executives who express an urgency to become numbers driven. The problem is that they are using technologies that were designed 30 or more years ago. Today, it is all about speed. It’s about giving big speed to big companies.”

Their success has ensured investment has kept coming into the company. Discussing the rise in valuation to the $1bn dollar mark, Mr Lefouet said: “It’s a consequence of the work we’ve done. The target, three years ago, was to grow the company globally.”

Premji Invest led the recent investment, supported by Baillie Gifford, Founders Circle Capital, and Harmony Partners, as well as Anaplan’s current investors.

Sandesh Patnam, Partner and Lead US Investor at Premji Invest, said: “Anaplan is a game-changer because it enables companies to not only make processes faster and easier, but also fundamentally change the way their people work and make decisions.”

The company has also announced the appointment of James Budge as its Chief Financial Officer. Budge brings more than 20 years of Silicon Valley leadership in private and public companies.

Allen & Company LLC served as financial adviser to Anaplan on this latest round of financing. Total investment in the company is now up to $240 million.

Highlights of Anaplan’s first half of its fiscal year, ending January 2016, included revenue growing 134% year-over-year. They doubled their number of employees to more than 500 worldwide, located in 15 offices across 11 countries. Mr Lefouet said that there is more expansion to come in other countries.