The recent market pullback has been enough to give any founder or investor some level of pause. But any student of software innovation ought to note that cloud businesses today are still displaying strong fundamentals, despite public valuation multiples having contracted. At Bessemer, we think that growing annual recurring revenue showcases durable growth at scale and is the best performance indicator of public company success.
That’s why we introduced the Centaur, a new milestone for cloud businesses that reach $100 million or more in annual recurring revenue. In our research at Bessemer, we’ve identified approximately 160 private cloud Centaurs in the world, making these companies about seven times more rare than unicorns.