Indian techie sells company for $3.7bn to Cisco
Jyoti Bansal, an IIT Delhi alumnus, has sold his company AppDynamics to Cisco for $3.7 billion. Bansal had founded the company eight years ago in the US. AppDynamics has over 900 employees. It develops software to help companies monitor bugs on their mobile apps and websites and fix them. Bansal is settled in the US and said he always wanted to be an entrepreneur.
The sale's announcement came a day before AppDynamics was to launch its IPO, which valued the company at $2 billion. AppDynamics' acquisition is Cisco's largest since its 2013 acquisition of security company Sourcefire for $2.7 billion. AppDynamics will continued to be headed by CEO David Wadhwani. Bansal had handed over leadership to Wadhwani in 2015.
Bansal has diluted his stake in AppDynamics during multiple funding rounds over the years. He now owns 14% of the company and has received $520 million (Rs.3,400 crore) from the sale to Cisco.
After graduating from IIT Delhi in 1999, Bansal moved to Cupertino, California, on an H-1B visa to work for a start-up. Bansal waited nearly eight years before getting his green card. After founding AppDynamics, Bansal struggled to receive funding and spent many days around Silicon valley's Sandhill Road to attract investor interest. "The nights were spent coding on the couch," he said.
Bansal faced around 20 rejections from venture capitalists before securing his first funding round. Prior to the Cisco's acquisition, AppDynamics raised over $350 million over eight rounds from investors which include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs and Battery Ventures.
