Company’s Profile: Qnap Systems

By Corentin Béchade, Redactor, StorageNewsletter.com

Company’s name:
QNAP
Systems, Inc.

HQs:
New Taipei City, Taiwan

Other locations:
France, UK, Germany and China, and Netherlands warehouse service.

Date founded:
2004, as a subsidiary of ICP – IEI
Integration Corp.

Financial funding:
Current capital
at around $20 million. No plan for VC funding or IPO
as the company is self-financed and wants to remain independent.

Revenue:
Approximately $130 million in calendar
year 2012 and $100 million in 2011, planning $180 million to $200 million in 2013, according to Florent Verthuy, Qnap’s business development manager. Practically doubled
its revenue each year since inception in 2004. Growth slowing down since $100 million milestone.

CEO:

Richard Lee, since
2006, formerly at Acer, ASUS and Synology

≠ of employees:
Between 400 and 500 with majority in Taiwan

Products:
The goal is to design diskless NAS
and network video recorder solution for consumer and SMBs.
Latest version of their operating system QTS was released in June
2013. It produces diskless
NAS only from one to sixteen bays.

Units shipped:
12,000 units last year, planning 20% to 30% more in 2013 (for France only)

≠ of customers:
2,000 known customers

Average
price:
Between $320 and $400

Roadmap:

• Plan to launch larger NAS with 2.5-inch bays

• QTS 4.2 operating system to be launched soon

Distributors:
SQP, Ingram Micro, Also, Pact Info, Distriwan, D2B (direct distribution for specific demands)

Main
competitors:
Buffalo, LaCie, Lenovo, Netgear, Synology, Thecus, WD, etc.