Lightspeed Venture Partners, which first invested in Grafana Labs as the Series A funding round lead in 2019, is expected to be a lead backer on the new round, sources told Forbes.
SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesGrafana Labs, a cloud computing startup which makes software for monitoring and visualizing databases, is raising a new funding round at a flat valuation of $6 billion, multiple sources told Forbes.
The fundraise is being led by existing backers Lightspeed Venture Partners and GIC, the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund, according to three sources. It comes as a combination of primary and secondary funding, per two of the people. The round has not been finalized and terms may still change, sources said, but two investors familiar with the fundraising said the company had discussed raising around $300 million to $400 million.
The company, which ranked no. 18 on Forbes’ Cloud 100 last August, said at the time that it had crossed $150 million in annualized revenue earlier in 2023. That figure has since grown to around $250 million, five of the sources said. A company source said Grafana Labs is hoping to slightly improve its $6 billion valuation, which it achieved with a $240 million funding round in April 2022 — a price tag never disclosed by the company, but reflected by startup tracker PitchBook and confirmed by sources.
But six sources told Forbes the company has discussed terms that would keep its valuation unchanged. Still, given that number was reached in a different funding environment more generous to startup valuations, Grafana’s ability to defend its post-bubble valuation could be considered a sign of strength, several industry observers said.
The company and GIC declined to comment, while Lightspeed did not respond to a request for comment.
Grafana Labs was built off of an open-source project called Grafana, which was developed by Swedish developer Torkel Ödegaard. The initial software allowed users to create visualization dashboards for their data. To commercialize the technology, Ödegaard teamed up with Raj Dutt, who had earlier entrepreneurial success as founder of internet hosting service Voxel (sold in 2012 to IT firm Internap), and Anthony Woods, who was previously an engineer at Voxel.
The company has since released a suite of tools allowing its more than 5,000 customers to query, visualize and understand database metrics. In the process, it nabbed funding from investors including Lightspeed, GIC, Sequoia and Coatue Management. The startup now employs more than 1,000 people distributed fully remotely, with its cofounders located on three continents: Dutt, who is CEO, in the United States; Woods, who was chief technology officer until last year, in Australia; and Ödegaard, who focuses on technical development, in Sweden.
Growth-stage tech companies may take the funding as a cautiously optimistic sign that the large checks are starting to flow again. Other recent beneficiaries include European defense tech company Helsing, which Forbes reported is raising at a $4 billion valuation led by existing investor General Catalyst, and Scale AI, which boosted its valuation to $13.8 billion with funds from existing backer Accel. On the public side, Cloud 100 perennials like Klaviyo (No. 6) and Rubrik (No. 9) have celebrated IPOs in recent months.
New investors have expressed interest in participating in the round, according to one source with direct knowledge of the fundraising. But the fact that existing investors in Grafana are expected to lead the financing — what venture capitalists call an “inside round” — could also suggest that those backers, already committed to the company, were more comfortable doubling down at a price that several others, who looked at the deal and did not invest, called rich for the current climate.
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{URL}https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrickcai/2024/05/24/grafana-labs-flat-funding-round-lightspeed-gic/{/URL}
{Author}Kenrick Cai, Forbes Staff{/Author}
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