Cloud Elements’ team is headed to the slopes this morning, and it’s not just to take advantage of the fresh powder. They’re celebrating the close of the company’s largest funding round to date — a whopping $25 million Series C.
Founded in 2012, the Denver-based company has made a name for itself with its cloud API integration platform, which simplifies and unifies API integration for developers. Its platform makes disparate APIs work together, look the same and operate within a single ecosystem, enabling developers to integrate their applications and data quickly, easily and cost-effectively.
The latest funding, which brings Cloud Elements’ total capital raised to $46.2 million, follows a year of massive growth for the company in which it gained strong footholds in the fintech industry and expanded key partnerships.
This is not only validation of what we’ve accomplished but also the starting point of being able to continue investing in the things that are important to our customers.”
“This Series C is a tremendous validation that we’ve moved from the startup phase to the growth and expansion stage as a business,” said Co-Founder and CEO Mark Geene. “We’ve got a tremendous customer base and a market-leading position as an API integration provider of choice for anyone who builds software applications, whether they’re a software company or an enterprise that’s developing apps. So, this is not only validation of what we’ve accomplished but also the starting point of being able to continue investing in the things that are important to our customers.”
The round was led by Mercato Partners, with participation from existing investors Access Ventures, American Express Ventures, Grotech Ventures, Harbert Growth Partners, Rally Ventures and Upslope Ventures. As part of the deal, Josh Christensen, principal investor at Mercato Partners, will join Cloud Elements’ board of directors.
Based in Salt Lake City, the heart of Silicon Slopes, Mercato Partners works exclusively with growth stage companies in the Western mountain region — which, according to Geene, was a deciding factor in entering the partnership.
“One of the things that was really attractive to us was continuing to support investors who are really committed to our region,” he explained. “They’re also a very focused growth investor. They only make a few investments a year, and they really engage deeply with their partners. There’s lots of money around, and having not only money but a true partner in growing the business was really important to us.”
Part of the funds will be used to double down on white label reseller partnerships, which, according to Geene, stand to become a “significant growth engine” for the company in the coming years.
In addition to its biggest deal to date, Cloud Elements solidified a reseller partnership with German enterprise software giant SAP in June 2018. Through the alliance, SAP’s customers have access to Cloud Elements’ catalog of over 170 pre-built API integrations, allowing them to more easily and quickly integrate non-SAP applications with applications on the SAP Cloud Platform.
The partnership marked the beginning of a shift in Cloud Elements’ sales strategy, one that enables the company to reach many of the world’s largest enterprises — without having to build a massive direct sales organization to support that effort.
The company also plans to use its Series C to build out its team and presence here in Denver, as well as in its hubs in Dallas, India and Europe. Hiring in 2019 will center around Cloud Elements’ customer success, support and delivery teams — all in an effort to better support its customers. The company also plans to accelerate hiring within its alliances organization, which will focus on managing and nurturing partnerships, like the one with SAP.
Riding growing trends in the proliferation of public and private APIs and the ever-increasing adoption of SaaS product — in addition to its plans to accelerate global expansion — Cloud Elements expects 2019 to be its best year yet.
