AppDirect acquires cloud-search provider Xendo

AppDirect will incorporate Xendo's technology, building search capabilities onto its platform

The modern workforce has changed a lot in just a few years ago, including where we work and how we work. That is most evident in the number of cloud app the average employee uses, which number around 30. That's a lot to keep track of, and it means a lot of information spread across a lot of apps. 

Xendo, a provider of hosted enterprise search, is the solution to that problem, and now it has been acquired by cloud services marketplace AppDirect, it was announced on Thursday. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.

Xendo allows for full-text search across over cloud applications, including Box, Dropbox, Evernote, Twitter, Gmail, Github, Salesforce, Slack, Hipchat and Office 365.

Users just choose the services they want to connect, including multiple accounts, like their work and personal Gmail, for example. Xendo then scans the content it has been given permission to access and processes individual documents, streaming them directly into the Xendo index, which is also encrypted. They are then able to search across all of those accounts from a single location.

Xendo’s customers include Netflix, Looker and Intersection, which is owned by Alphabet.

Going forward, AppDirect will offer Xendo as a standalone app inside its network, for partners to sell to businesses. The company will also used Xendo's technology to build intelligent search capabilities into its platform, and plans to offer this feature sometime this year. 

While AppDirect is incorporating its technology, Xendo will also remain a stand alone, independent company, where it will be able to leverage AppDirect's network. The two companies had worked together previously, with AppDirect being a Xendo customer.

“As part of the AppDirect family, we’re going to be able to leverage a huge range of cloud-based applications to provide even deeper and more extensive search capabilities,” Julian Gay, Co-founder and CEO of Xendo, said in statement.

The San Francisco-based AppDirect is a  cloud service marketplace and management company that makes it easier to businesses to buy and manage cloud services they offer. 

The company works with channel partners, such as large telecommunications companies, hosting providers and retailers, including Comcast, Deutsche Telecom, Rackspace and Staples who allow their own business software to be white labeled, and sold by businesses to their customers.

For example, a business will go to Staples and will be able to select the apps they need, then offer them to employees to manage them all with a single password. Ultimately, this saves businesses both time and money, in that they will often get a discount, as it is cheaper to buy apps as part of a bundle.

The company reaches approximately a quarter of all small businesses worldwide through partners such as Comcast, Deutsche Telekom, Telstra, ADP, and FICO. In addition, it has over one million paid business subscribers.

There are so many cloud applications out there, though, that it can be hard to find information that may be spread across them, Daniel Saks, President and Co-CEO of AppDirect, wrote in a blog post. That is where Xendo's technology will come in. 

"A major underlying cause of this lost productivity is easy to spot: fragmentation. When information is spread across many applications that don’t “talk” to each other very easily, it’s a recipe for inefficiency and frustration," he wrote.

"Xendo’s core technology allows businesses to search for and access content across all of their apps, helping them be more productive. That functionality is the future of cloud management, and it’s going to be major component of AppDirect’s strategy as we move forward."

Founded in 2013, Xendo had raised only $28,000 in seed funding from Alchemist Accelerator.

AppDirect has raised $245.75 million in venture funding, most recently a $140 million round in October of 2015. Investors in the company include J.P. Morgan Asset Management,  Foundry Group, iNovia Capital, Mithril Capital Management, StarVest Partners, and Stingray Digital.

This is the sixth acquisition for AppDirect, and it comes less than two months after it bought Radialpoint, a provider of cloud and technical support services for small businesses and consumers. 

Other acquisitions include AppCarousel, a provider of app management platforms for connected cars and fleets, smartphones, smart screens, tablets, and other connected devices and Leftronic, a provider of real-time business data and analytics dashboards.

(Image source: xen.do)