Here's Why This Investor Poured A Staggering $200 Million Into A Company You'd Never Heard Of

Megarounds in private companies are becoming more and more common, but this is the first venture-capital investment AirWatch has taken.

Business Insider just talked to Jeff Horing, the investor who led the round.

He told us that almost the entire amount came from his firm, Insight Venture Partners.

No other VCs were involved, although AirWatch's wealthy founder, Alan Dabbiere, pitched in some more of his own money. (Contrast that to other big investment deals where some of the money goes to cash out founders or early employees.)

Horing said he backed AirWatch because he believes in Dabbiere, whom he's known for years. He also thinks AirWatch is the leader in a three-horse race to win the mobile-device management, or MDM, market.

Eventually "every enterprise" will need to buy MDM software, Horing said. This software helps them manage employees' smartphones, tablets, and laptops, using any operating system from any vendor.

While there are lots of MDM providers, Horing is watching two competitors in particular: MobileIron, which has raised $98 total including $40 million in December; and Good Technology, which raised $122 million as of 2005.

Good is currently going through a management shakeup and an ugly lawsuit. It just hired a new CEO.

AirWatch grew from a scrappy startup launched in 2003 to a top player with more than 6,000 customers—and all without a dime of VC cash until now.

Dabbiere had the resources to bootstrap the company because he previously founded another successful enterprise-software company, Manhattan Associates.