Follow The Money: 12 Tech Venture Capital Investments In May

Show Me The Money

Startups developing cloud applications and the platforms that run them lead this month's roundup of companies that received new infusions of venture capital in May.

It's a varied group: Along with developers of Software-as-a-Service platforms and applications for building management and human resource management, the companies that made the May edition of Follow the Money include several in the security arena and a couple in business analytics -- two hot market segments. Also here are developers of service desk and project management software, a supplier of data management and backup/recovery tools, and a company offering a next-generation, flash-based storage array system.

Here's a look at the 12 companies that caught our attention.

CoreDial

Headquarters: Blue Bell, Pa.

CEO: Alan Rihm

New funding: $27.5 million

Round: Private equity

Backers: LLR Partners

CoreDial operates a Software-as-a-Service platform that solution providers, value-added resellers and managed service providers use to sell, deliver, manage and invoice for private-labeled cloud communications services including hosted PBX, VoIP, SIP trunking and unified communications services.

CoreDial serves more than 350 channel partners, nearly half of which were added in the past year. The company also said it has experienced rapid growth in both sales and profitability.

Cybereason

Headquarters: Cambridge, Mass.

CEO: Lior Div

New funding: $25 million

Round: Series B

Backers: Spark Capital, CRV and Lockheed Martin

Cybereason, founded by former members of the Israeli intelligence agency's cybersecurity Unit 8200, develops real-time threat detection technology. The company's Cybereason Detection and Response Platform uses big data, behavioral analytics and machine learning to uncover complex cyberattacks designed to evade traditional defenses.

In May, Cybereason forged a strategic relationship with investor and customer Lockheed Martin, which is integrating Cybereason's technology into its various cybersecurity offerings.

Cybereason will use the new funding to expand its research and development, sales and marketing staffs.

DataHero

Headquarters: San Francisco

CEO: Ed Miller

New funding: $6.1 million

Round: Series A

Backers: Foundry Group

DataHero is a startup in the rapidly developing area of self-service cloud business intelligence. The company's service allows users to import and analyze data from such systems as Salesforce.com, Marketo, HubSpot, Google Analytics, Dropbox, Excel, Stripe and other sources. The company plans to use the new funding to expand development of its core technology and scale up its operations and support infrastructure.

In April, the company hired software industry veteran Ed Miller to be its new CEO, taking over from founder Chris Neumann, who is now chief product officer. Miller has led several startup companies, including Xythos, which was acquired by Blackboard in 2007.

Govini

Headquarters: San Francisco and Arlington, Va.

CEO: Eric Gillespie

New funding: $20 million

Round: Series C

Backers: Accel Partners, Salesforce Ventures and Symphony Technology Group

Govini provides a business intelligence platform and database for companies that sell to the public sector, including the U.S. federal government, helping answer such key questions as addressable market size, opportunity qualification, competitive positioning and partner profiling.

Instart Logic

Headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif.

CEO: Manav Mital

New funding: $43 million

Round: "Expansion" Venture

Backers: Hermes Growth Partners, Four Rivers Group, Tenaya Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Instart Logic develops software-defined cloud application delivery technology that the company says makes traditional content delivery networks obsolete. The $43 million in new financing, coming on top of three other rounds, brings the company's total funding to $95 million.

The company said its sales grew fivefold in 2014, with more than 400 websites now running on the company's software-defined application delivery platform. Also in May the company named Rafael Torres, previously CFO at OCZ Storage Solutions, as its new chief financial officer.

Lucid

Headquarters: Oakland, Calif.

CEO: Vladi Shunturov

New funding: $14.2 million

Round: Series B

Backers: GE Ventures, Formation 8, Zetta Venture Partners and Autodesk.

Lucid develops BuildingOS, a cloud-based application for integrated building management. The software addresses the growing need to connect and manage disparate commercial building technologies, including Internet-of-Things devices, and analyze the data they generate. Research firm IDC Energy Insights forecasts the market for smart building technology will grow from $6.3 billion in 2014 to $17.4 billion in 2019.

BuildingOS connects more than 160 hardware and software building technologies. Lucid will use the new funding to continue expanding those capabilities, as well as expand its suite of applications for building operations, finance and facilities teams.

R ubrik

Headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif.

CEO: Bipul Sinha

New funding: $41 million

Round: Series B

Backers: Greylock Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and existing angel investors

Rubrik markets a converged data management system that the company says eliminates the need for traditional backup software. The company's technology brings together elements of data protection, instant recovery and DevOps infrastructure into one system.

Rubrik depends on channel partners for 100 percent of its sales.

Also in May, the company unveiled the Rubrik r300 Series Hybrid Cloud Appliance, the company's first appliance product that ties the company's data protection software with an industry-standard server.

Samanage

Headquarters: Cary, N.C.

CEO: Doron Gordon

New funding: $16 million

Round: Series B

Backers: Marker LLC, Vintage Investment Partners, Carmel Ventures, Gemini Israel Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank.

Samanage develops cloud-based enterprise IT service desk and IT asset management software, competing with such companies as ServiceNow and BMC.

In January, Samanage said it grew its customer base by 90 percent in 2014 and recorded its third consecutive year of triple-digit growth. And the company said it's on track for a similar performance this year.

Tegile Systems

Headquarters: Newark, Calif.

CEO: Rohit Kshetrapal

New Funding: $70 million

Round: Series D

Backers: Capricorn Investment Group, Cross Creek Advisors, Pine River Capital Management, August Capital, Meritech Capital Partners, Western Digital and Sandisk

Tegile Systems is a leading provider of flash-driven storage array systems for databases, and virtualized server and virtual desktop environments. The company was founded in 2010 and the new round of funding brings the company's total financing to $117.5 million.

Tegile plans to use the new funding to finance its rapid global expansion and continue to grow its presence in the enterprise flash storage market.

Twistlock

Headquarters: Tel Aviv and San Francisco

CEO: Ben Bernstein

New funding: $2.5 million

Round: Seed Funding

Backers: YL Ventures

Twistlock emerged from stealth mode in May, debuting its suite of security software for virtual container technology from Docker and other vendors. Twistlock founders Ben Bernstein and Dima Stopel (vice president of R&D) worked in Microsoft's R&D center in Israel for 10 years before starting their company.

Twistlock provides businesses with visibility of and control over container-based applications and data while maintaining end-to-end security. Until now, according to the company, providing security for such container-based systems has been a hurdle to putting containers into production.

Wrike

Headquarters: Mountain View, Calif.

CEO: Andrew Filev

New funding: $15 million

Round: Series B

Backers: Scale Venture Partners, DCM Ventures and Bain Capital Ventures

Wrike markets a Software-as-a-Service project management platform and collaboration tools. The company plans to use the funding to expand globally and invest in continued product development: In the past year, the company has hired 100 new positions, bringing total employment to 200, and plans on adding 150 more in the next 12 to 18 months.

Wrike says it is growing at a rate of 20 percent month over month and is adding more than $1.5 million in new annualized recurring revenue every month. The company has more than 8,000 paying customers.

Zuman

Headquarters: Pleasanton, Calif.

CEO: Doug Devlin

New Funding: $4 million

Round: Series A

Backers: Undisclosed

Zuman develops a cloud-based human resource management application set, including payroll, benefits and talent management. The company particularly targets growing companies, offering an alternative to using competing, disparate application products from multiple companies.

Zuman will use the new funding to grow its sales, service and engineering teams to respond to what the company said is "significant demand" for its products and services.