Black Duck Scores $12 Million in Venture Funding

Black Duck Software announced yesterday that it has secured US$12 million in Series B funding from a group of investors lead by Fidelity Ventures. Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) Capital and SAP (NYSE: SAP) Ventures, a division of SAP AG, also participated in the round.

The funding round adds to the Waltham, Mass.-based software company's existing group of investors which include Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), Flagship Ventures and General Catalyst Partners and indicates further support for the company's open-source software compliance solutions.

Power on Board

The company also announced that Dave Power, partner, Fidelity Ventures will join its Board of Directors.

Power said in a statement that, "Enterprises are embracing open source software for its cost savings, quality and control benefits. ... Black Duck helps remove one of the last remaining roadblocks to wide-spread enterprise adoption of open source. Their solutions enable businesses to understand and manage complex license obligations so they can safely and productively use open source software in their critical operations."

Black Duck's protexIP software suite allows businesses to identify and manage license obligations for their software assets with the aim of enabling efficient use of open source and component software without compromising intellectual property.

Douglas A. Levin, Black Duck's CEO, said the company's business is being driven by a "perfect storm" of market trends. "Mainstream developers' use of open-source software, increased outsourcing and offshoring, new regulatory mandates, and deeper due diligence in both licensing and acquisitions are focusing executive attention on internal controls relating to software IP assets," he said.

Xeon-Compatible

Black Duck also said it signed a marketing and technical deal with Intel for ensuring the company's protexIP solution will be usable with Intel's 64-bit Intel Xeon processor-based servers.

The financing deal announced yesterday follows a Series A funding of $5 million announced in July 2004, bringing Black Duck's total capital raised to $17 million.