SAO PAULO, Nov 9 (Reuters) - German open-source software company SUSE is back to investing in Latin America after a period of downsizing in the region, the company said on Thursday, eying markets such as Brazil and Mexico to drive growth.
SUSE, which owner EQT AB recently proposed to take private and which underwent a management shakeup, said it has already opened an office in Sao Paulo and will open another in Mexico City as part of its effort to increase in Latin American presence.
"We are back," the company's chief revenue officer, Werner Knoblich, told Reuters. Knoblich was appointed to the role in June.
"We have a real opportunity to catch up; I foresee Latin America for the next couple years significantly (outpacing) the growth of SUSE as a whole."
The company, whose products include SUSE Linux Enterprise, Rancher and NeuVetor, said it was targeting growth of 500% over the next five years in the region, driven by new investments and demand for cloud-based enterprise applications.
"We are trying to do things a little bit different than what the prior management did, and that's what you'll see now - believing in being close to the customers," Knoblich said.
SUSE did not reveal how much it was planning to invest or the base for the estimated growth, though its 2022 annual report showed an annual contract value (ACV) of $21.7 million in the region.
"Latin America had a very good growth before the downsizing, we had very strong growth rates back in 2020, to 2021, to 2022, and then it kind of dropped significantly in 2023 due to the downsizing. We want to get back to that," Knoblich said.
Brazil and Mexico will be the first targets, but Knoblich did not rule out further expansion within the region, citing Colombia, Argentina and Chile as potential markets. (Reporting by Gabriel Araujo in Sao Paulo Editing by Matthew Lewis)
