Black Duck Software has closed a $5 million funding round, co-led by General Catalyst Partners and Flagship Ventures. The company, which sells open source software intellectual property (IP) management services to software developers and vendors, plans to use the money to hire key personnel and promote its “protexIP” services.

Black Duck launched its protexIP/development source code scanning and license conflict resolution software on May 17 after beta testing the software for six months at 20 customer sites. The software comprises a large, frequently updated database of open source software “codeprints,” along with client tools that developers, managers, and lawyers can use to identify, track, and resolve potential software licensing conflicts.

Roger Heinen, managing director of Flagship Ventures said, “The company is well positioned to take advantage of the exponential growth in open source software development. Black Duck solves a real problem because any company developing or buying software needs to know where the code comes from and what licensing obligations come with it.”

Black Duck CEO Douglas A. Levin said, “Black Duck is poised for significant growth in the near future and beyond.”

In addition to protexIP, Black Duck offers a registry service for open source developers wishing to timestamp their work.

 
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