Brothers Sam and Ryan Kroonenburg founded ACG in 2015 with a mission to teach the world to cloud. At the time, the available cloud training options were both expensive and unable to keep pace with rapidly changing technology. Frustrated, the pair aimed to make cloud learning relevant, accessible, affordable – and even fun. We met Sam and Ryan a few years later, in 2018, and by that time their initial cloud training course had evolved into a state-of-the-art e-learning platform with a rich content library, hands-on labs, interactive quizzes and certifications.

How Summit Partners Helped

• Led a minority investment in 2019 and a larger follow-on investment later that year to help fund the company’s acquisition of Linux Academy
• Supported ACG’s integration of Linux Academy and the launch of a new, integrated platform in 2020
• Led recruiting of several key hires, including President Katie Bullard, CFO John Ritchie and Chief People Officer Lorraine Vargas Townsend
• Collaborated with management to execute on the company's content/product roadmap and help drive new B2B customer acquisition velocity
• Engaged Summit Partners’ Peak Performance Group to support a complex software implementation
• Introduced ACG to Pluralsight and assisted management in the successful negotiation of the merger

Over the course of Summit Partners’ investment, ACG enhanced its comprehensive e-learning platform, adding immersive hands-on features and significantly expanding its content library – all of which has helped the company to deliver personalized learning at scale to more than 2.5 million users worldwide. In 2021, Pluralsight acquired A Cloud Guru to accelerate its push to solve the growing cloud skills gap, one of the biggest challenges in IT today. Summit Partners is now a shareholder in Pluralsight and continues to support Pluralsight.