New Relic, a US-based provider of software-as-a-service applications backed by media-focused merchant bank Allen & Company, has raised $15m in its series C round and hired Chris Cook as its president and chief operating officer.
The C round was led by venture capital firms DAG Ventures and Four Rivers Group as new investors, with participation from existing backers Allen & Company and VC peers Benchmark Capital, Tenaya Capital, and Trinity Ventures. Founded in 2006, Four Rivers has an unusual model as its main strategic limited partners are legendary serial entrepreneurs and angel investors Rick Thompson, Russ Fradin, Joe Greenstein and Lewis Cirne.
Cirne founded New Relic after selling his previous company, Wily Technology, to trade buyer CA for $375m in 2006, eight years after he launched it.
New Relic, a provider of Ruby on Rails application performance management serivces, previously raised $6m in its series B round in November 2008, six months after the A round’s $3.5m from Benchmark Capital where Cirne had been an entrepreneur-in-residence.
New Relic said it had 200% year-over-year revenue growth and had 14,000 active customers, including recent cable company Comcast, sportswear maker Nike, and online games developer Zynga.