Image credits: SonarSource
SonarSource, a Geneva-based open-source and commercial code analyser, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $412M (approximately €388M) at a valuation of $4.7B.
The round was led by new investors Advent International and General Catalyst, with existing investor Insight Partners participating. Permira’s Growth Opportunities Fund also participated in the round.
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Fund utilisation
SonarSource says it will use the funds to double its sales force this year and grow its marketing team across existing offices in Geneva (Switzerland), Annecy (France), Bochum (Germany), and Austin, Texas.
The Swiss company is also planning to open a new regional headquarters in Singapore, allowing the company to build its business within the APAC (Asia-Pacific) market.
Olivier Gaudin, CEO and co-founder of SonarSource, says, “Source code is the key component of the software. At SonarSource, we enable companies to make this source code an asset rather than a liability. This delivers huge value, especially when you know this is done as part of the development process and requires no extra effort.”
“With the market recognising the importance of code, we have a clear path to $1B in revenue. Having the right people and partners around the table will help us to move swiftly toward that goal and prepare for public markets.”
SonarSource: What you need to know
Freddy Mallet, Olivier Gaudin, and Simon Brandhof founded SonarSource in 2008 after realising the need for a product that provides automated code reviews in an effective and integrated manner.
SonarSource provides solutions that enable developers and development teams to write clean code and remediate existing code organically.
The company’s open-source and commercial solutions, including SonarLint, SonarCloud, and SonarQube, support 29 programming languages, including Java, C#, Javascript, C/C++, COBOL, and more.
In the last four years, the company grew its commercial customer base by more than 2,000 per cent.
Over 5M developers at more than 300,000 organisations use SonarSource’s commercial and community products to improve their code quality, claims the company.
Around 80 Fortune 100 companies, including IBM, Microsoft, Barclays, Alphabet, and NASA, use SonarSource today.
Investors
Founded in 1984, Advent International focuses on investments in five core sectors, including business and financial services, health care, industrial, retail, consumer and leisure, and technology.
The VC firm has made over 390 private equity investments across 41 countries, and as of December 31, 2021, had $88B in assets under management.
“SonarSource is an outstanding business that has positioned itself as a category-defining leader in clean code, with a trusted reputation among developers and a truly differentiated solution,” says Bryan Taylor, head of Advent’s Technology investment team and a managing partner in Palo Alto.
“We are thrilled to partner with Olivier and the SonarSource team as they build a major platform within the software development ecosystem, accelerating the rapid growth in their revenue and user community,” he adds.
General Catalyst is a VC firm that invests in founders with a long-term view who challenge the status quo, partnering with them from seed to growth stage and beyond to “build companies that withstand the test of time”.
“SonarSource has a bold vision for transforming the way organisations build software. This vision has been clearly validated by the company’s skyrocketing customer adoption and outstanding reputation within the developer community,” says Deep Nishar, Managing Director at General Catalyst. “General Catalyst is excited to support SonarSource in broadening its impact on a global stage.”
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