New Relic, a US-based application management provider backed by media-focused merchant bank Allen & Company, has raised $80m in mezzanine financing ahead of its planned initial public offering.
Venture capital firm Insight Venture Partners led the financing, which also included mutual fund manager T Rowe Price, Dragoneer Investment Group (backed by Investment Group of Santa Barbara and David Bonderman the founder of private equity firm TPG Capital), Passport Ventures, Benchmark Capital, Trinity Ventures and Tenaya Capital, which span out of bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008.
In November 2011, New Relic raised $15m in its series C round.
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.