US-based application delivery software provider Harness completed a $230m financing round yesterday featuring enterprise software producers Splunk and ServiceNow, internet technology group Alphabet and financial services firms Citi and Capital One.
The round consisted of $175m in equity funding and $55m in debt financing. It was led by venture capital firm Norwest Venture Partners at a $3.7bn valuation while Capital One, Citi, Splunk and Alphabet participated through Capital One Ventures, Citi Ventures, Splunk Ventures and GV respectively.
Investment bank JP Morgan filled out the investors with Adage Capital Partners, Balyasny Asset Management, Gaingels, Harmonic Growth Partners, Menlo Ventures, Unusual Ventures, IVP, Battery Ventures, Alkeon Capital, Sorenson Capital, Thomvest Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank.
Founded in 2016, Harness is the creator of a software platform which utilises artificial intelligence to automate parts of the DevOps process – where software development is combined with IT operations.
More precisely, the product uses machine learning to analyse the quality effectiveness of deployed software and automatically roll back failed applications, instead of leaving that to developers to do manually.
Philip Kirk, ServiceNow’s vice-president of corporate business development, said: “ServiceNow is thrilled to continue supporting Harness as they execute on their mission of simplifying software delivery to create the seamless digital experiences that customers and employees expect, now more than ever.
“Intelligent platforms like Harness are solving key challenges for enterprise DevOps teams and we look forward to expanding on our collaboration.”
The round took the company’s total funding to $425m and the cash will be channelled into improving its platform and increasing headcount. It has expanded its workforce from 250 at the time of its January 2021 series C round to almost 700.
Alkeon Capital led the $115m series C round, valuing Harness at $1.7bn, investing alongside Citi Ventures, Battery Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Sorenson Capital and Thomvest Ventures.
Harness had been valued at $500m in a $60m series B round in 2019 co-led by GV, ServiceNow Ventures and IVP with additional backing from existing investors Menlo Ventures and Unusual Ventures.
