How Atlassian built a $50B+ acquisition-led growth engine

The addressable opportunity has grown at a compounded 35% over the last 4 years and this 3x increase can be attributed to Atlassian’s investment in R&D (an industry high 34% of revenue) and its acquisition-led growth engine.

Creating over half your market cap from acquisitions

Fast forward 14 years, the company has invested north of $1B, across 18 acquisitions and 12 investments to fill product gaps (speed to market), enhance capabilities (talent and IP) and expand markets.

Atlassian’s core non-acquired businesses (Jira and Confluence) grew 4x since IPO (24% CAGR) as vs. their acquisition heavy business lines which grew at roughly 8x (38% CAGR) during the same time period!

At Atlassian, a dedicated team, working with playbooks for financial, people, and systems integration aligns the acquiree with the goals & processes of the organization and streamlines an otherwise uncertain transition.

Way Forward

As Atlassian continues its push to go cloud-first; R&D, product enhancements, and strategic acquisitions continue to be key levers.