Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Apparent discovers $12M in VC funds

By Galen Moore

Apparent Networks Inc. has raised a $12 million Series C round of venture capital, led by new investor Egan-Managed Capital, the company reports. The company makes software that diagnoses network problems.

Founded in 2000 in Canada, Apparent moved to its current headquarters to Wellesley Hills after a $12 million Series B round that closed last summer, with a plan to develop a product out of its technology-supported consulting business. CEO Jack Sweeney joined the company at that time. Series B investors Bain Capital Ventures, JMI Equity and Business Development Bank of Canada returned to participate in the C round.

“Effectively, Apparent Networks is injecting itself into your network, going along for the ride and recording everything it sees,” said Egan managing partner Michael Shanahan, who joined Apparent’s board when its latest round of funding closed last November. What sets the company apart from other network diagnostic products is its “light touch,” he said.

Unlike other diagnostic products, Apparent’s software does not ping a network to test its performance, he said. “There are a lot of solutions out there that actually hurt the network more than help in that they’re constantly measuring performance in such a fashion that it actually slows the network down.”

Apparent is targeting large enterprise customers with software that is bundled together with a hardware device, Shanahan said. The company’s next step technologically will be to develop a hardware-independent product that can be downloaded via the web.