Philly startup Cloudamize sold to Blackstone firm in London

A majority stake in Cloudamize, a Center City start-up that helps its clients move operations to external computer servers, has been sold to Cloudreach, which is based in London and majority-owned by Blackstone, a major private-equity firm, the companies said Wednesday.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it means "lots of investment coming into the business and lots of new jobs being created in Philly," Cloudamize chief executive Bob Moul said Thursday.

The company employed 23 at the end of 2016 and planned to add 12 to 15 more people this year, Moul said in February.

"We are well on track for that, and I think we'll more than exceed that" he said Thursday, but declined to give specifics.

Cloudamize said that since its founding in 2012 it has helped more than 500 companies such as ESPN, OfficeMax, and the Salvation Army move operations to the cloud.

Moul, who took over from company founder Khushoo Shah in early 2016, said in April that sales in the first three months of the year were nearly double the total for 2016.

In the sale to Cloudreach, earlier investors MissionOG, DreamIT, Gabriel Investments, and a group of angels cashed out, Moul said.

Cloudamize founders retained a portion of the merged operations, he said.