Jama Software, a Portland-based company that makes a product development platform used by companies including Qualcomm, SpaceX and Amazon Robotics, has raised $200 million in a funding round led by New York’s Insight Venture Partners.
Seattle’s Madrona Venture Group, an existing investor in the company, also participated in the latest funding round, one of the largest for a privately held tech company this year in the Pacific Northwest.
In fact, according data provided to GeekWire by PitchBook, the $200 million round makes this the largest venture financing deal in the Pacific Northwest over the past five years, and one of the top 15 in the country over that time period, among companies that were venture-capital backed at the time of the private equity round.
Founded in 2007, Jama is now approaching 200 employees. The company makes software used to build complex products and mission-critical systems, including projects with high levels of complexity and regulation, often combining hardware and software in engineering groups that span multiple disciplines. Other customers cited by Jama include NASA Kennedy Space Center, Eli Lily, Canon, Caterpillar, SpaceX and the Department of Defense.
Jama says adoption of its platform has grown 80 percent in the past year. The privately held company doesn’t disclose specific financial results.
It’s a “strong and growing” market segment, Jama CEO Scott Roth said in a phone interview with GeekWire from Amsterdam, where he is taking part in customer meetings with Jama’s European team.
“That was one of the reasons why we were so excited to take on this round of funding, to continue to serve such a large and growing market opportunity for us,” Roth said.
The company had previously raised a total of more than $30 million from investors including Madrona Venture Group, Trinity Ventures, and Updata Partners. Trinity and Updata did not participate in this latest round. Jama did not disclose specific financial details of the latest funding round.
Roth, who took over as CEO in 2016, also addressed Jama’s aspirations for its hometown.
“For me, being a resident of Portland, this was a great opportunity for us to continue to have a much longer runway as a standalone private business,” he said. “Obviously in Seattle you have seen the benefit of that with some of the recent IPOs and the growth that has happened in the market. And I’m really excited for giving Portland another company that is going to have a great opportunity to grow to a significant scale and hopefully have a much bigger impact on the local community.”
Jama opened its European headquarters in Amsterdam last year. In January, Jama acquired Portland-based business-intelligence technology company Notion in a cross-town deal that recently relaunched as the Jama Analyze product, joining a product lineup led by the company’s flagship Jama Connect product development platform.
Roth declined to disclose a hiring target for the next year. He said the company will use the funding in part to continue the development of its existing products while also looking for ways to accelerate the development of new products that Jama plans to bring to market in the future.
Jama Software is currently #40 on the GeekWire 200, our index of the Pacific Northwest’s top privately held tech startups.
Post updated at 2 p.m. with PitchBook data
