Venture Capital Firms

Accel Partners leads $60 million Series A funding round for Atlassian

It seems Australia is too small for companies like Atlassian when they are on the fast track of development. This is why they look for new markets and opening offices in USA – San Francisco and Europe – Amsterdam. They recently got a boost of $60 millions in funding and it seems that the VC Australian market was too small for them as they looked for an US VC firm with higher potential to support their constant growth. Accel Partners was the chosen one especially for their expertise in helping companies going public, one of the main targets of Atlassian in the future.

Started in 2002 by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar with the main goal of creating innovative software for its customers to solve problems through brilliant simplicity, Atlassian was a fast growing company even in the first year as in 2006 was already selected by Deloitte in their ranking of Technology Fast 500.

Not truly an open source software company but open source oriented, they manage to sell their products exclusively through their online platform. With more than 20,000 customers all over the world, a strong product portfolio and an open policy towards their clients, Atlassian secured a good position in software industry over the years looking for further development.

This $60 millions funding from Accel Partners is the first funding they receive since 2002 when the company was founded and who knows what the future will reserve for the company in the funding field. Atlassian managed to have a healthy, positive income during the years but this money were needed to ensure liquidity, expand their portfolio, support their expansion in Europe and maybe even looking into other startups acquisition.

For Accel Partners, is not their first funding in software field as during the last years they supported or acquired a lot of companies. They were the first ones who funded Facebook – the well known social network company – and we all know how good that money was spent. Metro PCS is another hit. They also supported Admob who recently was acquired by Google. Silicon Valley is one of their main focuses but Accel have offices also in London, supporting the European market, China and India, two very interesting markets from capital ventures firms’ point of view.

Accel is covering a lot of industries like Energy, funding companies like SunRun or GS Solar, Retail supporting companies like Diapers or Dovetail Furniture to Healthcare and Biotechnology where we can mention Healthcare Magic, MitraBiotech or Perfint Healthcare. They are always aiming the industry leaders that are trying to innovate and change the world.

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