PTC invests in ServiceMax to expand ops, R&D

PTC is putting more of its money into building a thriving Service Lifecycle Management business, taking part in an $82 million Series-F round of funding for ServiceMax. ServiceMax, which makes cloud-based field service management apps, has now raised a total of $202 million from GE Ventures, Cloud Apps Capital, Emergence Capital Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Crosslink Capital, Questmark Partners, Sozo Ventures, Trinity Ventures and others.

ServiceMax plans to use the capital to expand its global sales, support, and marketing efforts and grow product development  — in other words, fund the business. ServiceMax CEO Dave Yarnold said in the press release announcement that, “400 companies [rely] on ServiceMax as their mobile field service solution [and] we’ve clearly established ourselves as the global market leader. In fact, we’re seeing that service is rapidly becoming the killer app for the Internet of Things. Having a robust field service solution to manage smart, connected machines will enable a company’s service organization to evolve from being reactive to proactive and eventually predictive.”

Clearly, this is what PTC hopes will be its next sweet spot. ServiceMax and PTC together want to create an integrated offering (or offerings that integrate, depending on your perspective) that manages connected devices to spawn modern field service products and practices. PTC is integrating its Service Information and Parts Optimization solutions with ServiceMax’s Field Service Management (FSM) solution, and PTC is also integrating that combo with the ThingWorx application development platform. The end goal: connectivity that enables remote, predictive and/or proactive service. It’s early days for this space, as we saw at LiveWorx earlier this year: huge interest, much thinking/planning/dreaming but the reality is that a lot of companies have cobbled together some sort of solution already — and need to be incentivized to change — while others need a refresh of their product portfolios to even make this connectivity possible.

PTC CEO Jim Heppelmann said that the investment “underscores the importance of our relationship with ServiceMax as well as PTC’s commitment to the SLM market”, while Mr. Yarnold said of the relationship with PTC, “We are excited and proud of our deepening relationship with PTC … We are helping customers around the world leverage their service organizations to drive growth.We’re thrilled to secure financing that will enable us to continue investing in this massive market opportunity and fuel the convergence of field service and the Internet of Things.”

The press releases also said that ServiceMax added 140 new customers last year and saw 200% growth in Europe (though it’s not clear if this is revenue or some other metric).

No numbers in the press releases, but I am told that PTC put in around $10 million — we may learn more during PTC’s next earnings release.