Belfast tech start-up Cloudsmith raises $15m to boost US presence

21 Sep 2021

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Cloudsmith said it will use the Tiger Global-led investment to hire 60 new employees to work on its software supply chain management platform.

Belfast software start-up Cloudsmith has raised $15m in Series A funding to hire 60 new employees and expand its presence in the US.

Founded in 2016 by former NYSE developers Alan Carson and Lee Skillen, Cloudsmith helps businesses manage software on the cloud – removing the need to hire in-house support staff and cutting down on expenses.

The funding round was led by major tech investor Tiger Global with participation from new investors Shasta, Amaranthine, Sorenson and Leadout Capital. Existing investors Frontline, MMC and Techstart also backed Cloudsmith, as did Docker CEO Scott Johnston, Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar and Puppet CEO Yvonne Wassenaar.

“Cloudsmith was built to tackle the complexity of managing software assets, which is a key challenge for any company to secure their software supply chains,” said Carson. “Our service allows our customers to track and control the distribution of any software asset and provides tooling to minimise the risks of utilising open-source software.”

As part of its security measures, Cloudsmith automatically scans for vulnerabilities helping to prevent security hazards entering the software supply chain.

Sorenson Ventures principal Vidya Raman said that while package management is not a novel idea, it is critical to the software development life cycle. “The need for both cloud-native software development and secure software supply chains has resulted in the need to reinvent package management,” he said.

“That’s where Cloudsmith’s continuous packaging platform has come in and continues to lead that market. It is in the new world that Cloudsmith truly shines.”

With 60pc of its revenue coming in from the US, the Ignite NI alumni also has customers across Europe, the Middle East and Australia.

It raised £2.1m in seed funding in 2019 led by Frontline, MMC and Techstart, and its list of global customers include the Internet Systems Consortium, Carta and Font Awesome. Techstart has previously funded the start-up to bring its tech to the global market.

Vish Gain is a journalist with Silicon Republic

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