Portainer founder and chief executive Neil Cresswell. Photo / File
Portainer founder and chief executive Neil Cresswell. Photo / File
It was the proverbial game of two halves.
"Container" software startup Portainer, based at Hobsonville Point, has just raised US$6.2 million ($9.8m) in a Series A extension - taking its total Series A raise to US$12.2m ($19m).
The initial US$6m was raised in May last year, when the venture capitalmarket was still running red hot.
Now, the industry is rife with stories of VC companies battening down the hatches.
Was it harder to raise the second US$6m, now that the market has turned?
"There was significantly more due diligence, and more focus on how the money would be spent. It was a lot more mechanical," Portainer founder and chief executive Neil Cresswell tells the Herald.
"The days of 'Here's some money, go wild' are gone. Those with a good idea that's yet to find a market fit will struggle, but if you have a proven idea, VCs are still willing to double-down."
The first leg of Portainer's Series A raise was led by Bessemer Ventures, the Silicon Valley VC fund that was one of Rocket Lab's earliest investors, with support from local player Movac, among others.
The second leg just closed was led by Movac (NZ's largest VC operator), with other first-leg investors also returning and two new backers coming onboard: Shasta (the US VC that has also supported recent raises by Auckland anti-shoplifting tech outfit Auror and Tauranga's LawVu) and the Crown-backed NZ Growth Capital Partners.
Movac general partner Lovina McMurchy says, "While the funding environment has gotten much tougher in the last few months, good companies who are addressing large global markets with standout products will keep getting backed."
And Cresswell's startup fits the bill.
"Portainer has built a strong and growing base of open source users from around the world. They are now ready to move into full-scale commercialisation by investing in sales resources to drive adoption of their paid offering. This addresses the need to make modern container technology easy and accessible for developers and companies everywhere."
Cresswell says the new funds will be spent "almost exclusively on sales and marketing".
His company currently has 30 staff in NZ (of a total 52), but Cresswell says that number probably won't increase as he focuses on hiring offshore.
While the local tech talent squeeze has been a factor, Portainer needs to put boots on the ground in the US and Europe.
"We just have to hire closer to where we do most of our business. I've been working 4am to 11pm to keep up with the different time zones," Cresswell says.
The era of lockdowns was a mixed bag for Portainer. On the one hand, the startup benefited from talent returning home. On the other, travel restrictions were a nightmare at times. At one point, snap border closures saw Cresswell and his wife both stranded outside New Zealand, in different countries.
With the skies now relatively clear, the CEO is shortly heading to Europe to investigate growth opportunities in the so-called "Industry 4.0" market - or a combination of Internet of Things (IoT) hardware and software for running the likes of factories and power stations in smarter fashion.
Cresswell says the step for his company will be to set up for a "substantial" Series B raise.
The size of the Industry 4.0 opportunity will determine the size of the round.
At this early stage, "It looks amazing. The Industry 4.0 market looks like it will be bigger than data centres." He says a clearer picture will emerge over the next six to nine months.
Portainer's office - a converted Air Force building - at Catalina Bay, Hobsonville Point. The startup has nearly doubled staff to 52 over the past year. Photo / File
A container-what-now?
"Containers" exploded in popularity with the geek-set early last decade. The technology wraps an app, and everything needed to run it, inside a virtual container, allowing it to be run on a computer in your office, or via a server on a public cloud or a private cloud.
"Containers provide a way to deploy applications in a safe and secure manner, and that provides isolation between each application and the server they run on," Cresswell says.
"This allows you, for instance, to have multiple versions of the same app running on the same server without conflict. Containers also let you easily distribute and scale components of your app across servers, giving better performance and reliability."
Although the concept makes a lot of sense, the first wave of container solutions were user-hostile.
Cresswell, co-founded Portainer five years ago with French expat Anthony Lapenna, with the aim of creating much more user-friendly, accessible container software. Its free version quickly gained 500,000 users. Those who plump for a paid version get extra frills, including 24/7 support.
