Raleigh software company rPath plans to hire 20 employees by the end of next year after raising $7 million in new venture capital funding.
"We have enough market momentum that we now want to push sales and marketing and see if we can increase business," CEO Mike Torto said. "We have a big opportunity here."
In addition to sales personnel, the company plans to hire technical support workers and software engineers "so that we can continue to stay ahead of the curve and bring more advanced products to the marketplace," Torto said. A major upgrade of its flagship product, rPath 6.0, is to be released in the first quarter of next year.
RPath announced Monday that it raised $7 million in venture capital, pushing its total capital raised to date to $32.5million.
The company was formed in 2005 by two alumni of Raleigh-based Red Hat.
The company's technology enables corporate information technology departments to more easily access and manage their software - regardless of whether that software is in a physical, virtual or "cloud" environment. Cloud computing enables companies to access networks of computers over the Internet.
"We are taking a lot of the complexity out of the cloud," said Torto. The company also touts its software's ability to reduce customers' operating costs.
RPath sells its software on a subscription basis. The average subscription is $150,000 a year, Torto said.
The company is riding the growing popularity of cloud computing, Torto said.
Torto declined to provide revenue figures, but he said the privately-held company started 2010 with 70 corporate customers and is on target to add another 20 employees this year.
The latest round of funding for the company, its fourth, was led by existing investors North Bridge Venture Partners, which has offices in Boston and California, and Massachusetts-based General Catalyst Partners.
'All ... the ingredients'
RPath has "all of the essential ingredients for building a very successful company: a world-class team, a proven and differentiated product, and a large and growing market opportunity," DavidOrfao, managing director at General Catalyst, said in a statement. Orfao is a member of rPath's board of directors.
Torto was hired last year to put the company back on track after its growth was waylaid by the recession, forcing it to reduce its staff - through layoffs and attrition - by 30 percent.
