The stock markets may be bearish, the price of oil is down the drain, but money continues to pour into the DevOps tools and solutions market. Just in the last few days 4 companies have announced significant new funding. Whether this is a last gasp before the doors slam shut, the tech industry thumbing their nose at the rest of the business world or proof that the recent market downtrend is a red herring I don’t know. But as someone who has lived through more than a few bubble bursts in the tech world it bears watching.
For now though, the good times continue to roll! Lets review the new funding news:
JFrog raises an astounding $50m! That amount of money is nothing to sneeze at! I spoke with Shlomi Ben Haim, CEO at JFrog. They have over 120 people working there in offices in Israel, HQ in Santa Clara and France. Their JFrog Artifactory and JFrog Bintray are hosting software for organizations the world over, big and small. Ben Haim and his team, as well as his blue chip investors believe the time is now as DevOps goes mainstream. They want to make sure they have the money to capitalize on the opportunity. Congrats to the JFrog team and we are excited to see what this money translates to for them.
Puppet Labs raises $22m in debt financing. While Puppet continues its phenomenal growth it took the opportunity to grab $22m in debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank. I spoke to Puppet CEO Luke Kanies about the raise and he told me that he is not even sure the company will use this money, as they still have a sizable portion of their last raise in the bank and are getting close to profitability. But at today’s low interest rates who can blame him for taking advantage of available cash? There was a time when debt financing was frowned upon. Why take on debt when you could give some equity for cash. But in today’s low interest rate/ high valuations world, why give valuable equity when you can get money for near free? In addition to the money, Puppet is also expanding their offices by about 37,000 square feet and have appointed financial veteran, Lou Lavigne to their board. This continues their preparation towards and IPO down the road. Of course with the market where it is, they may be better off staying private.
Datical raises $8m Series B round. Databases as part of the DevOps movement are going to have their day and Datical wants to be the company to make it happen. To do that they have raised a Series B led by S3 Ventures. They money will be used to continue development of their agile Database automation tools, as well as sales and marketing. I had a chance to speak with Ben Geller and Robert Reeves of Datical. One of the things they want to use the funds for is to expand beyond the North American market. That is a wise move given the economic environment and the reality of a global marketplace. There was a time when Internet companies could concentrate on the US and thrive, but the demographics just don’t support it anymore.
Finally, today marks the debut of Sendachi. Sendachi is a consulting firm dedicated to helping companies with their DevOps transformation. It was (initially anyway) formed by the merger of Seattle-based Clutch and London based Contino. Along with $30m dollars from Columbia Capital. The money will be used to expand the firms marketing and business teams. Some portion of it though will also probably be used to fund further acquisition. I had a chance to speak with former Clutch and now Sendachi CEO,Steven Anderson and former Contino founder and my friend Ben Wooten. They were both very excited by the potential of this Atlantic spanning venture. Anderson said that the $30m is just the start and if necessary more capital could be available for strategic purposes. My feeling is that we may be seeing the birth of a roll up in DevOps consulting practices in Sendachi.
In other M&A news on this topic, Docker announced it has acquired Unikernel Systems as well.
Congratulations to all of the companies raising capital and buying and selling. Anyone who has had to raise money or have bought and sold a company knows that it is not an easy thing to accomplish. Who will be the next DevOps company raising money? We probably won’t have to wait long to find out.