Prepping for IPO, MuleSoft nets $37M from NEA & others to make app integrations easier than ever

The explosion of public APIs over the past few years has created a new market for companies that can help manage APIs and integration of data and applications. One of the companies leading the charge to make integration seamless is MuleSoft, a startup that has just raised $37 million in its fifth round of funding.

MuleSoft offers an extensive platform for companies who seek to integrate APIs and data from other companies. For example, many business-to-business companies want to integrate Salesforce’s data into their apps because there is a lot of crossover with their customers. MuleSoft has 400 paying customers, including Honeywell, MasterCard, Nestle, Nokia, and Walmart.

“The integration platform is huge, and we’re going after a massive market,” MuleSoft CEO Greg Schott told VentureBeat. “Many legacy vendors don’t move at the speed that you need to today, but we do.”

The new funding will go toward expanding its lineup of products and hiring many more sales and support people to help spread the word on what MuleSoft’s platform can do. Schott said the new cash will also help it acquire smaller companies as it continues to expand.

On top of the funding, it has also launched what it dubs the “Anytime Platform,” a full-service integration service to make it possible to connect any app, data service, or API to another whether it is in the cloud or on-premise.

Many times companies seeking late-stage funding like this aim for IPOs in the near future. MuleSoft is no exception. Schott said the company intends to go public in the “next 12 to 18 months.”

“It makes a lot of sense for us to go public eventually,” Schott said.

The new funding round was led by New Enterprise Associates, with participation by other investors, including Salesforce, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SAP Ventures, and Bay Partners. Including the new round, MuleSoft has raised $81 million to date.

“The success of companies like Salesforce.com and Workday shows the profound economic advantage of the cloud-based approach, but the move to the cloud creates a new set of challenges for enterprises,” Scott Sandell, general partner at NEA, said in a statement. “Companies that are enabling a more seamless transition from on-premise to cloud are among the most exciting investment opportunities right now, and MuleSoft is one of the breakout leaders in this category.”

San Francisco-based MuleSoft was founded in 2006 and has 180 employees. Schott said the company will have “close to 300 employees” by the end of 2013.

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