Cloud platform company Apprenda takes $24M

Apprenda, a startup that sells platform-as-a-service (PaaS) cloud software for building and running applications, announced today that it has raised $24 million in new funding.

Apprenda’s software can run on top of cloud infrastructure or companies’ existing on-premises data center infrastructure — or both. That distinguishes it from some cloud-only PaaS providers, like market-leading public cloud Amazon Web Services, Google App Engine, and Heroku. But Microsoft, with the Azure cloud-based PaaS, is increasingly bringing its cloud-services on premises and vice-versa. Competition also comes from companies like Red Hat and Pivotal, as well as Apcera, which Ericsson recently backed.

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Cofounder and chief executive Sinclair Schuller is hopeful.

“We’re the only independent, venture funded company in this space, and everyone else is an incumbent looking to sell more of the same. That’s lock-in at its finest,” Schuller told VentureBeat in an email.

Apprenda started in 2007 and is based in Troy, New York. To date, the company has raised $56 million, including the $16 million round from November, 2013. Apprenda claims to have dozens of customers, including AmerisourceBergen, JPMorgan Chase, and McKesson.

Safeguard Scientifics led the new round in Apprenda. New Enterprise Associates and Ignition Partners also participated.

The company intends to provide greater support for technologies like IBM’s WebSphere middleware, Docker’s containers, and Microsoft’s .NET software framework, a spokesman told VentureBeat.