The Venture Codex

Led · Series A · Sep 2015

CircleBack Lending is an internet-based marketplace (peer-to-peer) lending platform that provides prime U.S. consumers fast access to loans at attractive interest rates and offers institutional investors a transparent platform to invest in consumer loans. Since launching in 2013, the platform has facilitated the origination of over $200 million in loans for uses including debt consolidation, home improvement, and small business. In September 2015 CircleBack completed a $17.4 million Series A equity financing led by Pine River Capital, and Wicklow Capital participated with a follow-on investment. Pine River also entered into an agreement granting it the right to purchase up to $500 million in aggregate principal amount of consumer loans originated by CircleBack. Management said the proceeds will be used to continue scaling the business in a thoughtful and responsible manner and to build a sustainable business in the high-growth marketplace lending arena. The company referenced industry growth potential, citing a PwC estimate that the marketplace lending opportunity could be as big as $150 billion within the next ten years.

Participated · Equity · May 2015

Tegile Systems builds flash-driven enterprise storage arrays that balance performance, capacity, features and price for virtualization, file services and database applications. Its core products include all‑flash and hybrid arrays powered by the company’s patented IntelliFlash software architecture and multi‑tier flash technology, including IntelliFlash HD and the IntelliFlash Cloud Platform that leverages NVMe SSDs. Tegile’s solutions provide inline deduplication and compression, NAS and SAN connectivity, snapshots, remote replication and VM-aware features to accelerate business-critical applications and consolidate mixed workloads. The company plans to use the new funding to invest in technology development, product innovation and to expand worldwide market reach. Tegile reports strong growth, citing an all‑flash revenue growth rate of 110% year‑over‑year and new customers such as CMG Financial, United Center and AT&T. The company also points to market tailwinds, referencing Gartner’s projection that the solid state array market will reach $10.4 billion by 2020. Tegile Systems provides all-flash and hybrid storage arrays targeted at databases, virtualized servers and virtual desktop environments. Led by CEO Rohit Kshetrapal, the company says its solutions aim to accelerate applications, reduce storage footprint and cut operational costs. Since 2012, Tegile has deployed more than 1,500 systems within mid-sized and large enterprise environments and currently has about 300 employees. It closed a $70M funding round and has now raised $117.5M in total. Backers on the round included new investors Capricorn Investment Group, Cross Creek Advisors and Pine River Capital Management alongside existing investors August Capital, Meritech Capital Partners, Western Digital and SanDisk. Tegile intends to use the proceeds for global expansion, to double headcount in the next 18 months, scale up operations and further expand its reseller channel. Tegile Systems, led by CEO Rohit Kshetrapal, develops hybrid storage arrays (the Zebi line) that offer both NAS and SAN connectivity. Its arrays use enterprise-class hard drives and SSDs supplied by HGST, a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Digital. The company serves more than 300 production customers addressing server virtualization, virtual desktop integration and database integration. Tegile plans to use new funding to strengthen sales and customer support across North American and European channels. It also intends to accelerate new product and technology development to expand its offerings. The company recently closed a significant growth financing to support these initiatives.

Led · Equity · Apr 2014

Apigee provides an API platform and a big-data analytics product to help enterprises manage APIs and monetize the data flowing in and out of their systems. The company positions itself as the largest standalone provider of API management services. It has bolstered its analytics capabilities through acquisitions, including InsightsOne, one of four acquisitions since its 2004 launch. Apigee has significant enterprise traction and competes in a space where rivals Mashery and Layer 7 were recently acquired. With its latest financing the company has accumulated $171 million in total capital invested. Management says a public offering could come within the next year. Apigee offers a platform for creating, managing and measuring digital initiatives built on apps, data and APIs, with flagship products Apigee Enterprise, Apigee Insights and the Apigee API Exchange. The product portfolio has expanded to address integrated mobile and data-driven use cases and to power app ecosystems across industries. The company says 20% of the Fortune 100 and over 10% of the Global 100 are Apigee customers, and lists customers including Walgreens, eBay, Shell, Live Nation, Bechtel, Marks & Spencer and Vodafone. Apigee will use the new financing to grow global sales and marketing and to accelerate expansion of the Apigee platform. The company positions itself to help organizations deploy comprehensive digital strategies for the mobile and app economy. Apigee is headquartered in Palo Alto, California. Apigee is a well-funded enterprise company that provides an API management platform. The company revealed it accepted a highly strategic investment from In-Q-Tel, though deal details and the amount were deliberately kept under wraps. Apigee said it was “thrilled” about the investment and looks forward to expanding its relationship with In-Q-Tel and its government partners. The team views the investment as a sign that its API management product will become more of a priority in Washington D.C. In-Q-Tel is the investment arm of the CIA and is widely treated as a “stamp of approval” that can open large government markets. The article highlights that In-Q-Tel-backed companies have gained government customers, suggesting potential market-access benefits for Apigee. Apigee builds an API management platform with a growing focus on mobile backends and developer services. The company has been expanding via acquisitions, including mobile cloud platform Usergrid in January and the assets and personnel behind the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC) the week prior. Apigee powers integrations such as a “print to Walgreens” feature in mobile photo apps and is adding analytics functionality, with a new analytics product slated to debut this summer. CEO Chet Kapoor emphasizes a “mobile first” market trend and Apigee’s role providing scalable backends for developers and enterprises. The company plans to expand into new markets, ramp up sales and marketing outside the U.S. (notably Europe and Asia), and open additional offices to support that growth. Apigee is a Palo Alto–based provider of API products and technology for enterprises and developers. Enterprises use Apigee for visibility, control and scale of their API strategies, while developers use it to learn, explore and develop API-based applications. More than 250 enterprises, including Comcast, GameSpy, TransUnion Interactive, Guardian Life and Constant Contact, and thousands of developers use Apigee's technology. According to a filing with the SEC, Apigee has raised $7 million in fresh capital. The company is backed by Norwest Venture Partners, Bay Partners, SAP Ventures, Juniper Networks, Net One Systems and Third Point Management Company. A total of 18 separate investors participated in the offering, per the filing.