E-mail security firm heads for the clouds

MXSWEEP, A provider of e-mail security, has signed agreements with software distributors in Scandinavia and the Benelux countries aimed at quickly growing the company to international scale.

Based in Navan, MXSweep provides e-mail security services such as anti-virus and anti-spam as well as web content filtering. It uses the software as a service [SaaS] model where the services are delivered over the internet, saving customers from having to invest in their own hardware and software.

MXSweep has just finalised a deal with Cloudmore.com, which distributes software to managed IT service providers using the internet as a delivery channel. Cloudmore.com operates throughout Scandinavia and is expanding throughout Europe, with customers in Ireland and the UK.

Rather than having to contact individual companies which provide managed IT services, MXSweep will be able to use the Swedish company’s network of contacts to grow its business more quickly without incurring significant sales and marketing overheads.

“We have immediate access to 700 managed service providers across Scandinavia and we’ll have access to 500 managed service providers in Ireland and the UK by 2010,” said Ed Grant, chief executive of MXSweep.

“Our models are very complementary, without us having to spend huge amounts on sales and marketing, and it gives us credibility in the market,” he said.

“It basically accelerates our business plan quite dramatically. By the end of 2010 the Cloudmore deal would give us close to €2 million in revenue.”

MXSweep has also signed a similar distribution deal with Organic IT, a specialist managed services distributor in the Benelux region, and is currently finalising an agreement with a third European distributor, as well as with some other SaaS vendors, Mr Grant confirmed.

The company is on target to earn revenues of €850,000 in 2009 and Mr Grant said it should be profitable by the end of this year or early 2010. By the end of next year, it forecasts a turnover of close to €3 million, he added.

MXSweep was founded in 2006 and it has since raised close to €2.5 million in private investor funding. The company concluded a new funding round led by Enterprise Ireland in late April. Its largest shareholder is Eugene Murtagh, chairman and founder of Kingspan Group.