SA国际传媒

Raleigh, North Carolina-based cloud tech startup has raised a $100 million in a Series E round that gives the company unicorn status. The Series E, led by 聽was raised just over 13 months after its $50 million .

Subscribe to the SA国际传媒 Daily

New investors and , along with existing investors , , , and , also participated in the financing. The round brings Pendo鈥檚 to $206 million since its inception in 2013, according to its SA国际传媒 profile.

The company, per its , aims to 鈥渦nderstand and guide the entire product journey with a single (cloud-based) platform.鈥� In other words, it wants to help companies build digital products that are easier to use with a SaaS (software as a service) model. Pendo operates under the premise that 鈥渕any product teams still lack the basic tools they need to understand what their customers want, why customers come back, or what drives them away.鈥�

鈥淲e help companies create software that users love. How often do people use software that is frustrating, confusing or can鈥檛 find what you鈥檙e looking for?鈥� CEO and co-founder asked me when we talked at the time of Pendo鈥檚 2018 raise. 鈥淥ur whole value proposition eliminates those experiences. We help people get immediate value when they log into software. We believe that software is becoming a permanent part of our lives whether we鈥檙e purchasing new cars or experiencing some other digital experience.鈥�

The company has seen impressive growth over time, noting a three-year CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 334 percent. It currently has more than 375 employees, up from 225 in September of 2018, across offices in Raleigh, New York City, San Francisco, London, Sheffield, United Kingdom, and Tel Aviv.

Also, Pendo says its bookings grew 108 percent in the second quarter over the same period in the prior fiscal year. The company now has over 1,200 customers, including Verizon, ADP, Cardinal Health, RE/MAX, LabCorp, Bright Horizons, Okta, OpenTable, Salesforce, Zendesk and the Michigan Supreme Court.

鈥淎 lot of companies are focused on sales or marketing but very few are focused on product,鈥� Olson told me last year. 鈥淭his fundraise is a good example of why product is so critically important today, more than ever before.鈥�

Earlier this year, Pendo completed its second acquisition with the purchase of UK-based . But according to the company, it won鈥檛 be its last.

Pendo says it will use the new capital 鈥渢o accelerate global expansion through sales and marketing investments, and [accelerate] product development through engineering investments and acquisitions.鈥�

When I interviewed Olson last year, he told me that an IPO was something the company was considering. So I asked Pendo if that was still in the works. Its answer: 鈥淵es, it is. Pendo鈥檚 goal is to build a large, successful and independent company. Their business fundamentals, recent growth, product suite and leadership team have set the company on a path not only toward IPO but to be a dominant SaaS business for years to come.鈥�

This marks the second large round raised by a North Carolina company in a matter of weeks. On Oct. 2, we covered North Carolina-based聽, which has developed a cloud-based operating system for financial institutions, raising $80 million in a round of funding led by

In October 2018, I took a look at North Carolina鈥檚 growing startup scene. At that time, we found that venture funding in NC startups was up 154 percent to $2.57 billion for the year compared to $1.01 billion in all of 2017,聽 according to SA国际传媒 data. Maybe it’s time to take another look.

Disclosure: , an investor in Pendo, is also an investor in SA国际传媒, the parent company of SA国际传媒 News. SA国际传媒鈥檚 investors are listed as part of its SA国际传媒 profile. For more about SA国际传媒 News鈥檚 editorial policies on disclosure, see the News team鈥檚 About page.

Illustration: