By Manya Saini
(Reuters) – SonarSource, a coding platform for developers, said on Tuesday it was valued at $4.7 billion after raising $412 million in capital in a new funding round led by Advent International and General Catalyst.
Geneva-based SonarSource intends to use the funds to double its salesforce this year and expand the company’s marketing team across its international offices including those in the United States, France, Germany and Switzerland.
Olivier Gaudin, co-founder and chief executive officer, said the company is also preparing for public markets.
The company, whose customers include technology giants IBM, Microsoft and Google-parent Alphabet, offers a platform that supports 29 programming languages, allowing developers to “write clean code”. Its product offerings include both open-source and commercial solutions.
Technology firms offering innovative solutions for enterprises to streamline their business operations have seen valuations jump, with several using pandemic-fueled growth to float their shares in the public markets or raising funds in new rounds.
Enterprise software firms like coding platform GitLab Inc, Hashicorp Inc and Freshworks Inc all made strong market debuts last year, fetching valuations of more than $10 billion each.
Even as high-growth tech valuations have come under pressure this year, several firms continue to see interest from prominent venture capital and private equity giants.
Commenting on the importance of clean coding, Gaudin told Reuters, “organizations invest in this practice because they see the high return on investment, both on developers’ productivity and software risk management.”
SonarSource is also looking to expand in the Asia-Pacific market and said it would open a regional headquarters in Singapore.
Other investors in the new fundraise include private equity firms Permira and existing investor Insight Partners.
(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
