AppSense, the leading provider of user virtualization solutions for the enterprise and government, today announced it has signed an agreement to receive a $70 million investment from Goldman Sachs. AppSense will use the funds to accelerate its growth and capitalize on its position as a market leader in what is expected to become a $2 billion market in the next few years. Pete Perrone, managing director at Goldman Sachs, will join the company's board of directors.

"With the increased mobility of the workforce and the need to be able to access information from any device, Goldman Sachs sees a clear demand for user virtualization solutions that span multiple desktop delivery methods," said Perrone. "AppSense's strong customer traction, history of innovative solutions in desktop computing, and the record growth it has experienced over the past two years further solidified our decision to invest in the company."

In 2010, AppSense experienced significant customer momentum, rapidly expanding its portfolio of over 4,000 customers worldwide in both the private and public sectors, comprising such global brands as British Telecom, ESPN, JPMorgan Chase and United Airlines.  The company extended its market leadership in 2010 with the sale of 1.5 million user licenses, which includes partnering with Fujitsu to provide desktop management solutions to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for more than 1,000 locations and over 140,000 users in the UK.  More recently, AppSense has enabled the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to provide user virtualization to the agency's  large virtual desktop infrastructure, which supports over 16,000 employees stationed in more than 25 countries. In addition to significantly growing its customer base, AppSense experienced more than 60 percent global revenue growth; increased its workforce by over 40 percent; announced partnerships with a number of major vendors including Microsoft and McAfee; and, increased orders of new and existing customers by 80 percent within the past quarter.

"We are delighted by the level of support AppSense has received from Goldman Sachs and appreciate the magnitude of what this investment will allow us to do. Namely, to continue our expansion and maintain our role as market leader in the user virtualization space," said Darron Antill, CEO at AppSense. "Effective user virtualization solutions are critical to any enterprise's future desktop strategy and will only continue to increase with the growth of cloud and mobile device platforms."

For more information around this whopping $70M investment in the company, check out this blog post on the AppSense blog.