SpaceClaim closes VC funding

As I noted a few weeks ago, venture funding has started to come back into the engineering software space. SpaceClaim today announced that it has closed a new round of funding to the tune of $5 million. The funding came from current investors, including Borealis Ventures, Kodiak Venture Partners, Needham Capital Partners, and North Bridge Venture Partners and will be used to expand global sales and support capabilities.

In the press release about the investment, SpaceClaim CEO Chris Randles said, “Our global customer base is growing and adoption within sites expanding rapidly as engineers reap the benefits of extremely efficient, 3D Direct Modeling software that is shortening time-to-market and improving design creativity. We are pleased that our investment team continues to recognize the value in SpaceClaim and realizes that our strategies to become one of the leading engineering software tools are paying off. This new round of funding supports our efforts to expand our channels globally, which is well timed with the ‘thawing’ of economic budgets to fuel competitive advantage for our customers.”

Although today’s press release doesn’t say if this is a Series D round of funding, it comes after Series C, which took place almost exactly a year ago. That round raised $7 million to support ongoing R&D and increase sales and marketing capacity. That round was led by existing investors Borealis Ventures, Kodiak Venture Partners, Needham Capital Partners, and North Bridge Venture Partners. In 2007 SpaceClaim closed on Series B funding, raising $13.5 million from existing investors North Bridge Venture Partners and Kodiak Venture Partners, which co-led Series A funding of $7.5 million, and returning investors Borealis Ventures and Needham Capital Partners. 

So, to sum up, SpaceClaim has to date raised $33 million in four rounds of venture funding. Obviously, investors are impressed by the company’s ability to rapidly grow total revenue (253% in 2009) and new license sales (up 188%) even as many other design tools companies were struggling. One has to wonder, though, about their exit strategy: VCs usually expect a very nice rate of return with an exit in 3-5 years — and we’re coming to the end of that timeframe right about now … It will be very interesting to see what happens next!