Black Duck Software, the leading global provider of software compliance management solutions, today announced it has closed $12 million in a third round of financing led by Focus Ventures of Palo Alto, California. Black Duck will use the funds to continue to build out its product portfolio and to strengthen international distribution channels. The funding will allow Black Duck to further differentiate itself as the only company with a broad vision of software intellectual property and compliance management requirements, as well as the ability to deliver a platform to help customers worldwide meet those challenges.

“Black Duck is in the path of the most dominant trends in software today,” said Steven P. Bird, general partner of Focus Ventures. “Development has moved toward a code assembly method, including the blending of open source, third-party and internally developed components. Black Duck leads the market by providing a platform that helps companies implement software governance. We’re confident that they will extend their leadership and further distinguish themselves in terms of vision and products.”

Douglas Levin, president and CEO of Black Duck Software, said: “Organizations across industries increasingly recognize the importance of compliance issues associated with software they build and use. Black Duck leads the market in providing solutions that help these businesses manage the policies and processes that govern the creation, deployment and distribution of software assets. As we accelerate our growth and enter new markets, Focus Ventures’ global reach will be a strong asset to Black Duck.”

The Series C financing brings to $29 million the total raised to date by Black Duck. Previous investors in the company, including Fidelity Ventures, Flagship Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, Intel Capital and SAP Ventures, also participated in the round.

Comprehensive Vision, Market Need and Product Quality Propel Black Duck
2006 marked a point of inflection for Black Duck as it enhanced its product line, expanded internationally and was recognized for its industry leadership.

Largest customer base—Hundreds have chosen Black Duck. In 2006, the company added more Fortune 500 customers in industries such as financial services and manufacturing—an indicator of the value of software intellectual property across industries.

• The IT organizations of large enterprises in many industries use Black Duck’s protexIP solution to help ensure that internally developed software complies with open source licenses. These customers benefit from the quality of industry-tested code, while avoiding potential legal issues.

• The most influential players of the technology industry, including software and device manufacturers, use protexIP throughout the software lifecycle. Most have policies that govern use of open source and proprietary code, but select protexIP to help ensure that their software makes appropriate use of licensed code, libraries and binaries. By using protexIP, these companies minimize their exposure to costly product recalls, fines for violating open source licenses or mandated “open sourcing” of their code.

• Large technology companies, as well as venture capitalists and other investors, leverage protexIP, as well as Black Duck Software’s Professional Services Organization, to perform due diligence on software assets before investing or completing acquisitions. The use of protexIP has rapidly become the standard practice in the technology M&A industry for ensuring that intellectual property assets of target companies are inspected for license compliance.

  
  
• Broadest platform—Black Duck expanded its relationship with IBM on a number of fronts. It completed integration of protexIP with the Rational Software Delivery Platform and validated protexIP for use with Rational ClearCase. Developers using Rational products can now access protexIP directly from the Eclipse environment and protexIP is broadly available, on demand or on the corporate server, to Rational customers.
• Superior product line—Last year, Black Duck introduced protexIP 4.0, with new features designed to streamline work among software developers, architects, legal counsel and management. An interactive interface made the product more intuitive to use and enhancements to the protexIP KnowledgeBase make it the most comprehensive in the industry. Black Duck also grew its product portfolio with exportIP, the industry’s first and only available product designed to help ensure compliance with U.S. encryption and cryptography export regulations.
• Recognized industry leadership—The company is an active participant in discussions about updates to the open source General Public License. Black Duck will be ready after GPLv3 is released with updates to protexIP to allow customers to distinguish code covered by the new version. Black Duck also formed the Compliance Vanguard Alliance to help enterprises navigate licensing issues related to use of open source software. Continued innovation and clear market leadership spurred 2006 industry recognition of Black Duck. Notable awards include the Red Herring 100 and a best of show at the Corporate Channel & Computing Expo.
• Worldwide presence—The global nature of the software community, growth of markets in Europe and Asia, and increasing reliance by software developers on outsourcing have made international growth a priority for Black Duck. In the past year, the company expanded its footprint through partners in the U.K., Australia, Israel and South Korea; deepened its involvement in India; and tightened its relationship with its Japanese partner.
  
  

About Black Duck Software
Black Duck Software^TM is the leading provider of software compliance management solutions that help companies govern how software assets are created, managed and licensed. Black Duck's offerings help businesses take maximum advantage of open source software while at the same time ensure that they satisfy the obligations associated with the code they use. Black Duck's customer base includes enterprises, product developers, outsourcers, law firms and other organizations worldwide that are concerned with protection of software intellectual property. For more information about Black Duck, visit www.blackducksoftware.com.