LOCAL SOFTWARE STARTUP KANDJI RAISES $60 MILLION

San Diego-based tech company makes program that helps businesses manage Apple devices for workers

Just seven months after its last big check from investors, San Diego startup Kandji has raised an additional $60 million to keep up its fast growth.

The tech company, which makes software that helps businesses manage Apple devices for their employees, already closed a $21 million round in October.

Founded in 2018, the company has added 60 workers in the past seven months, bringing its headcount to 100. CEO Adam Pettit said staff could double to 200 employees by the year’s end. The company just moved to a new office in downtown San Diego on Broadway.

Kandji’s enterprise software allows businesses to get their staff up and running on Apple devices quickly, securely, and from a remote location. The remote part was especially valuable in 2020 when nearly all office staff was dispersed.

“We were only in the market maybe six months before the pandemic hit, and we’d already seen an incredible amount of demand for the product,” Pettit said. “Then we saw revenue grow more than 20X — almost 30X — last year. Since we’ve raised our Series A round, we tripled revenue. We expect to triple revenue again by the end of the year.”

The Series B round was led by Menlo Park-based Felicis Ventures

with participation from SVB Capital and Greycroft, among others.

The big checks from wellknown venture funds signal the growing interest in software that supports remote work, and the uptick in Apple products in the enterprise market. Already 500 companies use the startup’s software, including Allbirds, Crunchbase, Belkin, Noom and several other well-known brands.

“Employees, especially the younger generation, often have a strong preference for Apple devices as businesses execute on their future of work strategies,” said Mark Bowker, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, in a statement. “Kandji’s technology empowers companies to deploy and manage those devices, as well as to navigate the impact of compliance mandates like Center for Internet Security and FedRAMP more successfully.”

Kandji is hiring across the entire company, Pettit said, but is focusing some of this new capital on its research and development recruits, hiring for engineering, product and product design.

This round of venture capital is the latest in a stream of softwarefocused money coming into San Diego. Earlier this week, San Diego tech firm Classy raised $118 million in VC money, joining Flock Freight, Clickup, Seismic and Tealium in big rounds.