US-based business software and services marketplace G2 received $157m yesterday in a series D round featuring the corporate venturing arms of enterprise software providers HubSpot and Salesforce.
The round was led by private equity firm Permira’s growth fund and included venture capital firms Accel, Emergence Capital and IVP as well as entrepreneurs Auren Hoffman and Thomas Lehrman, while HubSpot and Salesforce invested through HubSpot Ventures and Salesforce Ventures respectively.
The capital injection brought the total raised by the company to $257m since it was founded in 2012 as G2 Crowd, giving it a valuation of more than $1.1bn.
G2 runs an online marketplace where businesses can source software and services in addition to being able to view extensive reviews on each product. It has added 700 paying customers in the past year and increased organic traffic from software buyers by 95%, it said.
The company’s client base includes more than 2,000 software businesses including HubSpot, Salesforce, Adobe, Autodesk and Zoom. Permira partner Tom Eggemeier, head of its Menlo Park office, will join G2’s board of directors in connection with the round.
Godard Abel, co-founder and chief executive of G2, said: “This funding will be a catalyst for G2 to expand our community and products, grow our team, and continue investing in our vision to be the place for software online.”
G2 had previously raised $55m in a 2018 series C round led by IVP that also featured investment firm Pritzker Group as well as Emergence Capital and Accel, valuing it close to $500m.
The company had received $7m in a 2015 series A round led by Pritzker and backed by Chicago Ventures and Hyde Park Venture Partners. It subsequently raised $30m in a 2017 series B round led by Accel that included LinkedIn, Pritzker and various private investors.