Atlassian has raised $60 million from Accel Partners, the venture capital company that has funded such companies as Facebook, Dropbox and Etsy.
The funding is one of the most sizable investments we have seen by any measure in the social enterprise community.
It’s validating that a company focused on social product development tools can receive such a large amount of funding, and it shows the demand in the enterprise for tools that include a collaborative, social component.
Atlassian is not a pure social software tool provider but it has social components that provide ways to collaborate on product development. Jira is the company’s most popular tool. Its primary use is to sniff out bug issues for the software development cycle. Jira integrates with OpenSocial, the gadget platform initially developed by Google and MySpace to compete against Facebook.
Its success shows that the enterprise is adopting social tools. Product development is a social process. It makes sense to use tools that have that functionality.
Atlassian will use the funding for mergers and acquisitions, marketing, and deeper, more involved participation in local communities where developers congregate. It will look for companies that fit into the product development cycle. The goal is to offer a full, soup-to-nuts solution for product development. There are a lot of these little companies that could fit that profile. These include tools for code review, quality assurance and a host of other uses.
Atlassian got its start in 2002. It was founded by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar in Sydney, Australia. Both will continue to work as co-CEOs. Self-funded, the company has been profitable since its start.
Atlassian has 225 employees based in Australia, North America and Europe.
