US-based software company Joyent closed a series D round worth $85m on Monday, led by Weather Investment II, a group which owns a 20% stake in Russia-based telecom conglomerate Vimplecom.
Telefónica Digital, the division which houses the corporate venturing unit of telecommunications corporation Telefónica, also contributed to the round, making its second investment since the division was formed in September 2011.
Telefónica has stated that its investment in Joyent was predominantly strategic. Cloud-based services are a key investment target for the Digital unit, which was formed to grow Telefónica’s influence in the digital services markets.
Semiconductor maker Intel’s corporate venturing unit, Intel Capital, also participated in the round, as did cable operator Liberty Global and venture capital firms El Dorado Capital, Greycroft Partners and Epic Ventures. Intel has been a backer since Joyent’s 2009 series A round.
The round follows $5m in debt funding raised by Joyent in September. Added to the $19.5m in equity raised prior to the latest round, Joyent has now been funded to the tune of about $104.5m, with the Peter Thiel-founded Clarium Capital an investor in the 2005 seed round.
Founded in 2004, Joyent provides cloud software services to a range of internet companies worldwide including social networking site LinkedIn and Google-backed social gaming company Kabam, and the runtime for application development to companies such as Microsoft, through its open source Javascript project, Node.js.
Matthew Key, chief executive officer of Telefónica Digital, said: "This investment is further proof of our ambition in the area of cloud services and is in line with our strategy of working with leaders like Joyent, which is poised to vastly improve the way computing is carried out worldwide. Joyent’s technology fits perfectly with technologies developed in-house and our cloud services model, and enables us to provide more competitive offerings to a broader range of customer segments."
Weather was advised in the round by telecom focused investment and management firm Accelero Capital.