Mumbai, Jul 9 (IANS): Cyber protection company Acronis on Friday appointed industry veteran Patrick Pulvermueller as Chief Executive Officer. Pulvermueller succeeds Serguei Beloussov, who founded the company in 2003 and has served as CEO since 2013.

Founded in Singapore in 2003 and incorporated in Switzerland in 2008, Acronis now has more than 1,600 employees in 34 locations in 19 countries. Its solutions are trusted by more than 5.5 million home users and 500,000 companies.

"Acronis is poised to disrupt the data protection and cybersecurity markets while redefining how service providers leverage remote monitoring and management (RMM) and professional services automation (PSA) services," said Pulvermueller.

Pulvermueller joins Acronis from GoDaddy, where he most recently served as President of the Partner Business.

Acronis just received over $250 million in an investment round including CVC Capital Partners VII and others, which values the company at more than $2.5 billion.

"Having added more than $1.5 billion in valuation during the past 18 months, Acronis is on a tremendous growth trajectory thanks to the cyber protection strategy put in motion by Beloussov," said Rene Bonvanie, Acronis Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Beloussov will continue to be involved in the company as a member of the Board of Directors and Acronis Chief Research Officer, directing the technology and research strategy.