Marketo raised $25 million from Institutional Investor Partners (IVP) and existing investors this week. Chief Executive Officer Phil Fernandez says the investment will help position the company for an Initial Public Offering (IPO).
IVP has funded companies such as Netflix, Twitter and Zynga.
Previous Marketo investors also participated in the funding round. Those investors include InterWest Partners, Storm Ventures, and Mayfield Fund.
“We can feel and taste the opportunity,” said Fernandez in an interview this week.
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Marketo will use the funding for sales and engineering. It will also expand into international markets. It will open offices in Asia and Europe.
Marketo provides B2B lead generation and management technology. The service automates the sales and marketing process.
Marketo markets itself as a revenue management service for companies to get the most out of its marketing dollars and close more sales.
Fernandez says that it can follow a lead from an initial tweet to the close of a sale.
Marketo is considered one of the hottest companies in the market. Other service providers include Eloqua, Pardot and Aprimo.
The SaaS market for publicly traded companies continues to perform well. Salesforce.com posted a 30% increase in third quarter revenues this week, compared to the same time last year. The stock price is up 17% since the earnings were released.
There are no publicly traded marketing automation companies, said Bernard Lunn, managing director ITRS America Inc. The first one to make it to an IPO would have the best chances of winning the overall market.
Publicly traded companies are just more recognized, said Lunn, who also publishes the SaaS Insights Report. The status gets the companies into the executive suite. I provides credibility as the CIO can easily go and look at the company’s publicly available financials.
Marketo is growing rapidly. It is in a competitve market. It has a chance at the IPO but there will be others who will make the run, too.
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