Capital to Fuel Global Growth Requirements as Automated Open Source Governance Goes Mainstream

Sonatype, the leader in automated open source governance, today announced an $80 million minority investment led by TPG, a global alternative asset firm, with additional participation by existing investors Accel, Goldman Sachs Group and Hummer Winblad.

This capital will be leveraged to accelerate sales, marketing, and R&D investments, fund strategic corporate objectives, and expand Sonatype’s Nexus platform offerings now used by more than 10 million software developers and 1,000 enterprises worldwide.

“Open source ecosystems offer incredible value without any direct cost, and nearly everyone, whether individual developers, large enterprises, or government agencies, is reaping the benefit,” said Wayne Jackson, CEO of Sonatype.  “Open source innovation has never been more vibrant but, as with any software, there is also potential downside.  At Sonatype, we’re enabling organizations to confidently embrace open source so that they can both accelerate innovation and also mitigate risk. TPG is a great addition to our existing team of world-class investors and this transaction enhances an already strong balance sheet.”

Today’s IT leaders face intense pressure to accelerate the pace of software innovation while also improving security.  As a result, Gartner forecasts, “by 2019, more than 70% of enterprise DevSecOps initiatives will have incorporated automated security vulnerability and configuration scanning for open-source components and commercial packages, up from less than 10% today,” wrote Neil MacDonald, David W. Cearley, Mike J. Walker, and Brian Burke in their 8 March 2018 report, Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2018: Continuous Adaptive Risk and Trust.

“While the use of open source continues to grow exponentially, its unmanaged use presents significant security risks, as evidenced by last year’s breach at Equifax,” said Art Heidrich of TPG. “Sonatype has created a unique platform that addresses this rapidly growing and urgent market need. We look forward to working with Wayne and the Sonatype team to further realize the company’s potential.”

This news comes during a record year for Sonatype. Highlights include:

• 81% increase in year-over-year sales in 1H 2018
• 117% increase in year-over-year pipeline ACV /deal
• 114% year-over-year increase in monthly application scans via Nexus Lifecycle
• 5 million Nexus Repository users added since Jan. 1, 2018

Barclays acted as financial advisor to TPG in this transaction, which contained both primary and secondary funds. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati served as legal advisor to TPG. Morrison & Foerster LLP served as legal advisor to Sonatype.