Black Duck Software has secured $12M in a Series-B funding round led by Fidelity Ventures. The round includes Intel Capital and SAP Ventures, along with previous investors Flagship Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, and Red Hat. Black Duck will use the funds to expand its sales, marketing, and product development activities, it says.

Additionally, Black Duck announced that Fidelity Ventures partner Dave Power will join its Board of Directors, and that Intel Corporation has signed a technical and marketing cooperation agreement to help Black Duck optimize its ProtexIP solution for use with 64-bit Intel Xeon processor-based servers.

Black Duck sells automated software license management products and services, including ProtexIP/developer and ProtexIP/registry, launched in May of 2004, and ProtexIP/license management, launched in October of 2004. Black Duck says its ProtextIP suite allows businesses to identify and manage license obligations for their software assets, enabling safer and more productive use of open source and component software without compromising valuable intellectual property (IP).

Black Duck CEO Douglas A. Levin said, “Black Duck's business is driven by a 'perfect storm' of market trends that together position the company for rapid growth. Mainstream developers' use of open source software, increased outsourcing and offshoring, new regulatory mandates, and deeper due diligence in both licensing and acquisitions are focusing executive attention on internal controls relating to software IP assets.”

Power said, “Black Duck helps remove one of the last remaining roadblocks to wide-spread enterprise adoption of open source. Their solutions enable businesses to understand and manage complex license obligations so they can safely and productively use open source software in their critical operations. We believe the company is well-positioned to become the category leader.”

Jennifer Scholze, an investment manager at SAP Ventures, said, “We see the software world as increasingly based on mixed-IP solutions that incorporate open source, commercial, and proprietary software within single applications. Companies need to understand and manage this complex and risky environment with a robust, safe, and intuitive solution.”

Red Hat's general counsel, Mark Webbink, said, “We believe the potential for software compliance management solutions is substantial and growing rapidly.”

Black Duck's first round of funding, in July of 2004, netted $5M.

 
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