Circonus raised a $10 million Series B led by Baird Capital to scale the fast-growing Malvern, Pennsylvania, data technology startup.
Chicago-based Baird Capital, the venture capital and private equity arm of Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird & Co., joins a group of existing investors — NewSpring Capital, Osage Venture Partners, and Bull City Venture Partners — that participated in the funding round. Baird has recently invested in companies like Chicago life sciences marketing firm Vodori and virtual event platform Forj.
Circonus CEO Bob Moul said the meeting with Baird earlier this year had “instant chemistry,” as Joanna Arras, a partner at Baird, immediately understood what Circonus did and the market opportunity. Arras will join Circonus’ board of directors.
Circonus’ platform allows companies to monitor, analyze and manage high volumes of data generated by a variety of courses, including their network, applications and the cloud.
The startup has raised $23.3 million to date.
The Series B comes on the heels of a record year for Circonus, which has had
Circonus’ next steps are all about scale, Moul said.
The startup plans to double its staff of 25 to roughly 50 in the next year, with hiring concentrated in leadership, sales, marketing and engineering positions. Moul hopes to hire members of the leadership team in Greater Philadelphia, however the company has always been remote-first. The battle for talent makes hiring interesting, but Moul is confident that Circonus will be able to make the hires it needs.
“We're growing, we're winning, and we're looking for people who want to be part of an organization that's growing and winning,” he said.
Moul joined Circonus in 2019 when the company was based in Maryland. A serial entrepreneur and executive, Moul previously led Philadelphia startups Cloudamize, acquired by Cloudreach in 2017, and Boomi, a tech company that sold to Dell in 2010.
Circonus hit a rough patch last year as the pandemic led clients to rethink large contracts with the startup, but it turned around in late 2020, Moul said. The startup recently closed deals with real estate company Redfin and Electronic Arts, the video game publisher behind titles like the Madden franchise and “The Sims."
Circonus last raised a $6.8 million Series A1 round led by local investment firm Osage Venture Partners, with participation from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania and Bull City Ventures. It also raised a $6.5 million round in 2016 led by NewSpring.
The startup planned to raise a Series B in 2021 after finding its product market fit and its go to market strategy, he said, and the timing for fundraising was ideal because of the favorable investment climate for startups.
“The plan always was that when we had that engine working, we wanted to pour on more gas,” he said.
