world’s most popular open source database, today announced the completion of
an $18.5 million Series C round of financing led by Institutional Venture
Partners (IVP), the Menlo Park, California-based venture capital firm.
Corporate investors in the round were Intel Capital; Red Hat; SAP Ventures,
a division of SAP AG; and Presidio STX, the U.S.-based venture investment
subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation.
MySQL AB will use the proceeds to fund continued growth into the enterprise
database market, including new product development as well as expansion of
business development, sales and marketing activities.
Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL AB, said, “We are very pleased that IVP led this
financing. They have a proven track record in attracting superb corporate
investors, as well as a strong history of working with our current
investors. Our corporate investors were carefully selected as strategic
partners because they are among the key IT infrastructure providers for the
modern enterprises of today and tomorrow.”
Steve Harrick, managing director and general partner of IVP, said, “We
believe that MySQL AB is an exceptional company, poised for tremendous
growth in the enterprise market. With the release of MySQL 5.0, the company
is offering deep functionality at a fraction of the cost of the competition,
prompting many CIOs to reconsider their database strategy. We believe that
MySQL will have a lasting impact on the software industry — delivering more
transparency and value to IT organizations everywhere.”
Including this round, MySQL AB has received approximately $39 million in
venture funding. Other prominent investors include Benchmark Capital and
Index Ventures.
Dennis P. Wolf, executive vice president and CFO of MySQL AB, commented, “As
a cash-flow positive company, we have raised this $18.5 million to provide
us with all of the capital needs we might have to augment our technology and
to prepare for further growth in a very promising and expanding marketplace.
We believe that this funding will enable us to exceed all of our
intermediate term capital needs.”
“Open source is able to deliver unprecedented value to the customer and is
changing the way companies consume technology,” said Mike Evans, vice
president of Corporate Development at Red Hat. “We see the demand for open
source applications, like the MySQL database, picking up speed on a global
basis. We are pleased to support MySQL and believe they offer a high-value
choice for Red Hat customers.”
“SAP Ventures’ investment in MySQL is indicative of our belief that MySQL
can power business-critical database applications,” said Lisa Reeves, senior
vice president, SAP Ventures. “MySQL is a world-class database that offers
high performance, stability and rich features to support large applications
at an attractive TCO for the enterprise customer.”
About Institutional Venture Partners
With more than $1.6 billion of cumulative committed capital, Institutional
Venture Partners (IVP) is one of the premier venture capital firms in the
United States. Founded in 1980, IVP has invested in over 200 privately-held
companies, and more than 80 of these companies have gone public. The firm’s
managing directors have more than 100 years of combined venture capital
experience. IVP is currently investing IVP XI, a $300 million fund focused
on expansion-stage investments in rapidly-growing information technology
companies. For more information, visit www.ivp.com.
About MySQL
MySQL AB develops and supports a family of high performance, affordable
database products — including MySQL Network, a comprehensive set of
certified software and premium support services. The company’s flagship
product is MySQL, the world’s most popular open source database, with more
than 8 million active installations. Many of the world’s largest
organizations, including Yahoo!, Alcatel, The Associated Press, Suzuki and
NASA are realizing significant cost savings by using MySQL to power
high-volume Web sites, business-critical enterprise applications and
packaged software.
With headquarters in Sweden and the United States — and operations around
the world — MySQL AB supports both open source values and corporate
customers’ needs in a profitable, sustainable business. For more information
about MySQL, please visit www.mysql.com.
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MySQL is a registered trademark of MySQL AB in the USA and other countries.
Other products mentioned may be trademarks of their respective companies.”
Link: mysql.com
