Splunk, search engine for IT data, raises $25M

Splunk, a San Francisco company that offers a search engine for IT data across corporate networks, has raised $25 million in a third round of funding.

Company IT professionals benefit from the search engine, because it scours technical data across a business operatings, from hardware to software, letting them track logs, messages and other data.

It comes at a time when competitors are entering this area, including Network Chemistry, which two months ago said it was throwing its resources into a new search engine that does something similar.

The funding was led by Ignition Partners, and included existing investors August Capital, JK&B Capital and Sevin Rosen Funds. Unconfirmed reports put the company’s valuation at $120 million.

Splunk offers a free download for its service, which has helped it grow. In 18 months since the formal launch of its first product, the company has added 450 customers, including Visa and the U.S. Department of Justice, it says. It claims more than 100,000 user downloads.

This funding round follows Series A investment of $5 million in December 2004 from August Capital and Sevin Rosen, and $10 million Series B in January 2006 led by JK&B Capital.