Cloud Analytics Startup Anaplan Hauls $30M
Anaplan, a San Francisco-based enterprise modeling and planning startup, announced today it has raised $30 million in a Series C funding round led by Meritech Capital with participation from Granite Ventures and Shasta Ventures.
The infusion of cash will help the company solidify its footing in the global market. Plans call for four new data centers, increased development and staffing up its newly-opened offices in the UK, France, Sweden and Singapore.
In keeping with the consumerization of Big Data trend that is sweeping across the business analytics software market, Anaplan's cloud-based, in-memory platform turns average workers into “citizen developers,” said CEO Fred Laluyau. His company's technology allows these users, affectionately called “Anaplanners,” to quickly generate models without a deep analytics background.
And they don't have to be tethered to their PCs or juggle different software tools. Anaplan is “completely mobile ready,” said Laluyau. “Users just leverage the Web browser and work with Anaplan.”
Laluyau wants Anaplanners to ditch their spreadsheets. His company's platform provides built-in tools to “modify models and basically walk away from Excel,” he said.
Anaplan's fast in-memory underpinnings and its own Hyperblock technology, which provides a unified, single data model, results in a platform that spans many use cases and is applicable to many industries. According to the company, its technology helps companies with their long-range and financial planning as well as sales-related activities like territory and quota management. Other uses include IT performance management and strategic workforce planning.
For users, powerful servers, flexible analytics engines and sophisticated modeling techniques are tucked behind a user-centric Web-based interface. Anaplan “hides the engine and gives them access to the information that they need,” Laluyau said.
Anaplan has a number of high-profile customers, including Jive, Pandora, McAfee and Kimberly-Clark (Eastern Europe). Since its founding in 2010, the company has racked up customers and revenues, particularly last year.
“In 2012, the company grew its customer base by 500 percent and revenues by 800 percent across the globe,” claims the company. Today, said Laluyau, Anaplan is “signing massive contracts” and at the verge of sealing a deal with “one of the top three high-tech companies in the world.”
Anaplan's growth hasn't escaped the attention of Meritech managing director Rob Ward. “There is a strong and growing demand in the marketplace for Anaplan’s cloud-based modeling and planning platform, and the company’s growth in the last year has been outstanding,” he said in prepared remarks.
Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.
Pedro Hernandez contributes to Enterprise Apps Today, and 11Press, the technology network. He was previously the managing editor of Internet.com, an IT-related website network. He has expertise in Smart Tech, CRM, and Mobile Tech, Helping Banks and Fintechs, Telcos and Automotive OEMs, and Healthcare and Identity Service Providers to Protect Mobile Apps.
