PROFILE: Meet the SA-born man behind Mimecast
Mimecast co-founders decided to bet on the internet going mainstream and to help companies manage e-mail and data security
Once a quarter, when Nasdaq-listed Mimecast fields questions from investors about its results, co-founder and CEO Peter Bauer finds himself having to explain the e-mail and data security company’s strong presence in SA. Those who don’t recognise his Eastern Cape accent tend to be the most puzzled. "Investors normally raise their eyebrows when they see how significant [SA] is — they’ve never really seen a public company in the US with such a significant SA business; it’s about 15% of our revenues today," Bauer says by phone from Mimecast’s North American headquarters in Boston. "Obviously, the currency fluctuations are normally what need explaining — the pound and the rand have moved around a lot relative to the dollar, so each quarter we do have to explain." Fortunately, it’s easy to unravel. Bauer and co-founder Neil Murray (also a South African) have used the country as a gateway into the rest of Africa and the Middle East. In any case, investors don’t seem too perturbed. Since li...
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