Marketo secures US$50m in venture capital

Battery Ventures led the round, with existing investors Institutional Venture Partners, InterWest Partners, Mayfield Fund and Storm Ventures also participating.

The cloud computing company, which provides revenue performance management (RPM) technology, has already started its Irish recruitment drive and plans to create up to 125 jobs over the next three years in an IDA Ireland supported initiative.

The company said it will use the new capital to further its aggressive growth strategy.

"Because of our industry-leading growth in revenues and market share, Marketo had many options for capital,” said Phil Fernandez, co-founder and CEO of Marketo. “To stay focused on growth, our best choice was to secure private equity from a top-shelf firm, and I am very pleased to welcome Battery Ventures as an investor.

“This new investment gives us a war chest in excess of US$70m. We plan to use these funds aggressively to expand our award-winning product suite, further extend our global reach and look beyond our four walls to complement our own innovation engine. This investment validates our vision – and success – in building a platform to dramatically speed the way any company can grow revenue.”

The entirety of the new US$50m investment is primary capital into the company. In total, Marketo has raised US$107m since it was founded in 2006.

With this new round of financing, Neeraj Agrawal, Battery Ventures’ general partner, joins Marketo’s board of directors.

“From the moment we first engaged with Phil and the team at Marketo it became clear that the company was powering a revenue revolution,” said Agrawal. “We are bullish on the company’s ability to execute, and believe they are destined to be a true winner.”

“When we first invested in Marketo a year ago, they made an aggressive commitment to double revenue, and they’ve delivered,” said Norm Fogelsong, general partner at Institutional Venture Partners, which also has investments in Kayak, Twitter and Zynga. “Now we are doubling down on the future of this remarkable company and its ability to dramatically increase revenues for its customers.”