Logentries raises $10m in funding

UCD spinout Logentries has raised $10 million in funding and hired a new chief executive.

The company, which helps others sort through their log data to identify events of interest that they can use to develop their business, plans to use the funding to expand, with 60 jobs planned for the next two years.

Log data is the one of the fastest growing data sources at large organisations, and is used by developers and system administrators to see what is happening within their systems.

“Log data is like CCTV for a software system,” explained Logentries cofounder Trevor Parsons. “Logentries takes reams and reams of log data in its raw format, which is not very intuitive and we distill it down so you can very easily understand and identify events of interest in that data.

“You can see problems in your system, how end users are interacting and using your system. It essentially helps people find that needle in a haystack amongst all that data.”

Useful data
A typical start-up, for example, would produce in the region of two million log events a day, making it a tough task to identify useful data. The service is delivered to customers through the cloud, allowing them to access the data easily from any location.

The latest funding round was led by Polaris Partners, which is using part of the $50 million from the National Pension Reserve Fund to back Logentries. Other partners include Floodgate, RRE Ventures and Frontline Ventures.

“Although we haven’t been shouting from the rooftops, we have been growing organically, and we’ve been growing amongst the development community, and I think we’re really at a point now where we’re ready to scale that,” Dr Parsons said.

Experience
Meanwhile, former LogMeIn executive Andrew Burton has been appointed as Logentries' new chief executive, bringing considerable experience to the company. "We haven't really spent any money on marketing yet. It's been purely on word of mouth," he said. "We'll boost marketing and continue to build the team."

European venture partner at Polaris Noel Ruane said the company had a unique approach, and the fund was “bullish” about its future.

“It has the potential to become a standalone company. “With the team that’s in place, it’s a pretty powerful combo.”

Founded by Dr Parsons and Viliam Holub, Logentries was spun out of UCD in 2010. It raised $1 million in a funding round in July last year.

The company currently services more than 10,000 users in 100 countries, and processes about 20 billion log events every day.

This article was corrected on October 1st 2013