Jive Software nabs $30 million |
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Jive Software nabs $30 million
Two months after announcing that it was moving its headquarters from Portland to Palo Alto, Jive Software has pulled in a $30 million venture round from two of the biggest names in Silicon Valley. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and existing investor Sequoia Capital are tossing their weight behind the maker of online collaboration software. So, maybe the move to the Valley was worth it after all.
“We are honored to welcome KPCB to Jive, and to receive Sequoia’s unwavering commitment,” said Jive CEO Tony Zingale in a statement. “KPCB and Sequoia are unparalleled at building great companies. We are privileged to have them both on our team.” In an interview with GigaOm, Zingale noted that Sequoia and KPCB's last joint investment of $30 million was in Google. He also said that some of the money could be used for acquisitions.
Jive still maintains a large presence in downtown Portland and it continues to grow there, but the company has even bigger plans for Silicon Valley.
Jive raised in $12 million in funding last fall, which followed a $15 million round in 2007. The company's customers include Charles Schwab, Intel, Nike, and VMware, with the company saying that the social business software category is expected to be a $5 billion market by 2013. As a result of the most recent round, Ted Schlein of KPCB will join the board.
“Social business is the most important enterprise software category in a decade,” said Schlein in a statement. “Jive is the clear market leader, with a strong customer base, best-in-class technology and a deep management team. Jive is poised to become the next great enterprise software company.”
Words like those must be bittersweet for Portland. While it will certainly benefit from that growth, Portland sure could use a high-tech "anchor tenant" that called the city home.
UPDATE: Mike Rogoway at the Oregonian also reports that the news is somewhat bittersweet, noting that the 274-person company is growing faster in the Valley and positioning for a possible IPO next year. In his detailed story on the financing, Rogoway points out that no Oregon company has gone public in six years.
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