Belfast-based Cloudsmith raises £2.1m seed to launch first universal artifact caching service for software developers

Belfast-based tech firm Cloudsmith has closed an equity investment round of £2.1m.The round was led by Frontline Ventures and co-investors MMC Ventures, and locally by Techstart Ventures through its Invest NI fund, Techstart.

Cloudsmith’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offers an advanced logistics platform for software developers, operators and vendors, who need to secure, manage and accelerate their product development and distribution. It distributes millions of artifacts on behalf of its global customer base spanning every time zone in almost every continent.

The seed round takes place after a pre-seed investment earlier in the year, and will be used to ramp-up Cloudsmith’s R&D and marketing capabilities, with a focus on bringing to market the world’s first universal artifact caching service – providing software developers with an isolation and edge caching layer that will add significant resilience and performance capabilities to modern software delivery.

“We believe that the concept of provenance will play a defining role in the future of software security and quality. All companies need end-to-end visibility and control of the assets in their software pipelines. It’s important to have the support of Frontline and MMC as we enter this critical stage in Cloudsmith’s growth,” said Alan Carson, CEO of Cloudsmith.

“Customer feedback has shown that a single cloud-based platform for managing software artifacts builds collaboration and communication between teams – a critical aspect of the DevOps culture we facilitate,” added Lee Skillen, CTO of Cloudsmith.

Steve Collins, Partner at Frontline Ventures said, “The guys are building what is in effect a foundational element for the next stage in the evolution of software development and distribution. Protecting developers and businesses from the chaos of public software will be a game changer.”

Dan Bailey, Venture Capital Investor at MMC Ventures added “Visibility and management of software artifacts is ever increasing in importance as complexity increases within DevOps environments. We’ve been impressed by the team’s execution and vision in bringing this control and visibility to developers.”

Hal Wilson, Partner at Techstart Ventures commented, “This investment is a clear vote of confidence in the Cloudsmith team and their ability to execute.”

ENDS

For more information, please contact Michael Magill at Morrow Communications on (t) 028 90 39 38 37 or (e) [email protected]

Notes to Editors:

About Cloudsmith

Cloudsmith is a next-gen artefact repository and caching platform, providing secure digital storage for software assets under development, for deployment and distribution. Cloudsmith offers high performing businesses with an advanced logistics platform that helps simplify, secure and accelerate software development and delivery pipelines. Built on Package Management, Cloudsmith brings provenance to software pipelines.

About Frontline

Frontline is an early-stage B2B venture capital firm powered by people – the ambitious founders we invest in, our strong network of industry experts, and our own passionate team of ex-operators. Based in London and Dublin, Frontline backs companies throughout Europe. As a team, we strive to unlock the power of collective intelligence through our innovative platform – we believe in bridging the gap between technical and human, providing both capital and experience to shorten our entrepreneurs’ learning curves. With deep connections in the US, Frontline provides a wealth of knowledge and content around international expansion and we invest time and money into building the relationships needed to fast-track expansion, from investors to recruiters to other founders. For more information please visit : www.frontline.vc

About MMC Ventures

MMC Ventures is a research-led venture capital fund that has backed over 60 early-stage, high-growth technology companies since 2000. MMC’s dedicated research function drives a deep and differentiated understanding of emerging technologies and sector dynamics to identify attractive investment opportunities and support early stage companies through the life of MMC’s investment. MMC helps to catalyse the growth of enterprise software and consumer internet companies that have the potential to disrupt large markets. The Firm has one of the largest software-as- a-service (SaaS) portfolios in Europe, with recent exits including CloudSense, Invenias and NewVoiceMedia. MMC’s dynamic consumer portfolio includes several of the UK’s favourite companies, including Bloom & Wild, Gousto and Interactive Investor. Explore MMC’s cutting-edge research at mmcventures.com, MMC Writes and @MMC_Ventures.

About Techstart

Techstart Ventures LLP is venture capital fund manager. In Northern Ireland, Techstart Ventures LLP manages the Techstart initiative. This initiative is funded by Invest NI as part of its Access to Finance strategy and is part funded by ERDF under the EU Investment for Growth and Jobs Programme 2014-2020. TechStart Ventures LLP provides support for early stage technology businesses and university spin-outs through £50m of equity funds, and a £4.5m proof of concept grant fund.