When it comes to today’s requirements for financial transactions, every second — or millisecond — counts. That’s the laser-focus for Azul.
Azul’s main competitor is the mighty Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL), but its underdog status has not been much of a problem. In fact, the smaller company keeps stealing customers. One of the latest wins was the LMAX Exchange — a fast-growing forex market platform that processes about $3 billion in daily transactions and, at peak levels, can handle 40,000 transactions per second. It’s a prime example of Big Data.
Azul sure isn’t short on backing either. Since Azul was founded in 2002, it has raised over $100 million in venture capital. Some of the investors include tier-one firms like Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and JVax Investment Group. It’s a good bet that Azul will eventually look for an exit, whether via an acquisition or IPO.
In fact, I recently had a chance to talk to the company’s CEO Scott Sellers, whose tech career spans more than 23 years. Back in the 1990s, he founded 3dfx Interactive, which was a developer of high-end graphics cards often used for video games. He took the company public and then eventually sold it to NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA). Along the way, he was able to get eight patents issued in his name.
In our interview, Sellers talked about the current environment for tech — which he thinks remains robust — and the strong trends for enterprise technology, especially in light of the mega-trends like mobile, social networking and cloud computing. He also has some interesting things to say about the recent deal with the LMAX Exchange. Take a look!
Tom Taulli runs the InvestorPlace blog IPO Playbook. He is also the author of High-Profit IPO Strategies, All About Commodities, and All About Short Selling. Follow him on Twitter at @ttaulli. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
