One of Boston’s fastest growing companies, Acquia, announced this morning a whopping $30 million E round, led by Investor Growth Capital. The funding was joined by Goldman Sachs and Accolade Partners, along with the company’s previous investors Northbridge Venture Partners, Sigma Partners, and Tenaya Capital.
Acquia was co-founded by Dries Buytaert, the original creator of the Drupal open source content, and Acquia focuses on supporting enterprises using the Drupal system.
The company has been growing like crazy as of late and was named one of the fastest growing businesses in Massachusetts and the fastest growing software company in the nation by Inc. earlier this year. The company claims a compounded annual growth rate of 250% over the past three years, and has added 100 employees to its head count in the last year.
“Acquia delivers an unparalleled combination of enterprise class products, Drupal technical expertise and leadership,” said said Jose Suarez, Managing Director at Investor Growth Capital. “We believe the web is changing, and Acquia is uniquely positioned to help global brands create and manage immersive, multi-channel digital experiences.”
The new funding will be used to expand sales and marketing, including in Europe and Asia.
Though they’re hardly the first to do it, it’s worth noting that the country’s fastest growing software company is built around open source software that customers can download and install completely for free. Drupal is widely viewed as one of the leading CMS’s on the market, and unlike simpler blogging software, the potential for organizations to customize it are nearly endless. With that comes potential for a third party to help companies’ build, host and manage their Drupal sites. Enter Acquia. Just because software is given away for free doesn’t mean there’s not money to be made on it.
Acquia has raised $68.5 million in total to date, and with growth investors like Goldman on board it’s no surprise that the company is considering an IPO as early as next year, according to the BBJ.
