LucidWorks Announces $6 Million Series A Funding from Granite Ventures and Walden International
First commercial entity for Apache Lucene/Solr open source search technology
San Mateo, Calif. – January 26, 2009 – LucidWorks today announced that it has received $6 million in Series-A funding from Granite Ventures and Walden International with equal contributions from each company. LucidWorks, which launched today, is the first commercial open source company dedicated to the widely installed Apache Lucene/Solr search technology (please see release, “LucidWorks Launches as First Commercial Company Dedicated to Apache Lucene/Solr Open Source Search Technology ”, dated January 26, 2009). The funding will be used to expand the technical staff integral to delivering the company’s services, as well as grow sales and marketing functions.
“The Apache Lucene project has been a magnet for thousands of open source search developers and is ranked one of the top 15 open source projects,” said Eric Gries, CEO of LucidWorks. “The strength of the Lucene community demonstrates that open source search technology is a viable, cost effective alternative to expensive proprietary technology. When search application developers think of Lucene and related projects, we want them to view LucidWorks as their destination for expertise and resources to make them and their enterprise search solutions successful.”
“Over the past few years enterprise search has become a mission critical application, growing 28% annually, to $1.8 billion in 2007,” said Christopher McKay, principal at Granite Ventures. “At the same time open source software adoption has seen tremendous growth as more as more companies look to reduce costs while still maintaining strong IT innovation. We believe that the LucidWorks team is uniquely qualified to bring the best of both to enterprises that are reluctant to deploy Apache Lucene/Solr technology without the support of a well-funded commercial company.”
“We see tremendous opportunities investing in open source companies, and we’ve seen how they have changed the competitive landscape in segments like CRM, ECM and infrastructure software,” said Mary Coleman, managing director, USA for Walden International. “Enterprise search is the next big opportunity for commercial open source and LucidWorks is well-positioned for success. The Lucid Imagination team has exceptional technical expertise and a clear vision for strengthening the Apache Lucene community and making it a dominant player in the search and discovery software market.”
About LucidWorks
LucidWorks is a commercial company dedicated to Apache Lucene technology. The company provides free certified distributions, commercial-grade support, training, high-level consulting and value-added software for Lucene and Solr. LucidWorks’s goal is to serve as a central resource for the entire Lucene community and make them more productive. LucidWorks is a privately held venture-funded company. The investors include Granite Ventures and Walden International and its customers include AOL, Apple, Comcast Interactive Media, and Zappos.