Parallels Receives New Funding From Bessemer VP and Russia Partners

Swiss cloud computing firm Parallels has received a new round of venture capital as at least two investors bought in to an industry which is expected to reach USD 44.2 billion within the next several years. Russia Partners, a subsidiary of emerging market investor Siguler Guff & Co., was joined by Bessemer Venture Partners of New York in acquiring a minority stake. Bessemer has been an investor in Parallels since 2005.

Parallels (www.parallels.com)
Based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, Parallels is a cloud computing specialist providing virtualization and automation service to both individual consumers and commercial clients. The company offers its flagship Desktop 5 virtualization environment as well as software for infrastructure management, virtual web hosting, automation solutions, and more. The company’s 700 employees work from offices in Europe, Asia, and North America.

Bessemer Venture Partners (www.bvp.com)
Bessemer Venture Partners is the oldest venture capital firm in the U.S., having been founded in 1901 by Henry Phipps, Jr. Today the firm manages more than USD 2 billion is assets which are invested in more than 130 startups. Bessemer invests in a wide variety of sectors around the world and has helped more than 100 new ventures become thriving, independent businesses.

Skype, Symantec, VeriSign, and Staples are just a few of the well-known names Bessemer has helped launch.

Russia Partners (www.russiapartners.com)
As the oldest and largest private equity firm in Russia and the CIS, Russia Partners specializes in attracting foreign investment to Central and Eastern Europe. The firm looks for long-term investments from institutional investors, leveraging the combined experience its investment managers have with both Russian and Western markets. Russia Partners currently manages assets worth more than USD 1 billion from offices in Moscow, Samara and Kiev.