Cloud Elements Receives $25M Series C

The Series C round was led by Mercato Partners, with additional funding from existing investors Access Ventures, American Express Ventures, Grotech Ventures, Harbert Growth Partners, Rally Ventures, and Upslope Ventures. The new round brings Cloud Elements' total capital raised to $46.2 million.

Cloud Elements is an emerging leader in API integration platforms – helping hundreds of software companies and large enterprises innovate faster and easily integrate their digital ecosystems. The company's one-to-many "virtualized" integration approach enables developers to unify thousands of APIs, build common data models for core business functions, and reduce the pain, cost and complexity of application and data integration.

Customers include large software platform companies like SAP and IBM; independent software vendors like Axway, DoubleDutch, FinancialForce, Microstrategy and Sage; financial technology providers such as Danske Bank, FIS, PaySimple and Western Union; and digital business units of large enterprises like Dun & Bradstreet and Xerox.

"APIs are a great way to make software work together, but developers now have to deal with hundreds or thousands of APIs to automate basic business processes. Point-to-point integration can't scale to address this challenge," said Mark Geene, CEO and co-founder, Cloud Elements. "We virtualize and simplify API integration to make all APIs work together, look the same and operate the same – using industry standard protocols. We put your application at the center of a digital ecosystem, based on common language and unified data models. As our customers like to say, it's integration that starts simple and stays simple."

Cloud Elements' unique "embedded integration" model focuses on software providers, systems integrators and enterprise customers, allowing them to tap into an established platform with 170+ pre-built integrations, common data models and normalized capabilities for authentication, discovery, search, workflows, error handling and API maintenance. This eliminates the need for software teams to build their own integration stack, while enabling them to deliver more unified and expansive experiences to their customers.

The company recently landed its most significant deal to date – a global OEM partnership with SAP to embed Cloud Elements in SAP Cloud Platform Open Connectors. It's the first time SAP has delivered such an extensive solution for external integrations to third-party applications, which helps SAP customers connect out of the box with 170 SaaS applications – and tap into common data models and formulas for extending those applications.

The company has also found a strong market in financial services, helping financial technology providers create new digital customer experiences that bridge multiple financial processes and systems on the back end. Cloud Elements connects directly with ERP applications, global payment systems and accounting systems to synchronize financial data, create real-time cash-flow forecasting, eliminate dual entry, automate expense management and streamline invoice-to-cash processing. Fintech customers include Avalara, Concur, FastPay, Silicon Valley Bank, Tipalti, TradeShift and Western Union.

"We see the unique value Cloud Elements creates through a product that streamlines and simplifies the way companies deal with the proliferation of APIs," said Josh Christensen, principal investor at Mercato Partners, who now joins the Cloud Elements board. "Mark and his team have revolutionized the way companies integrate applications by doing it more quickly, easily and effectively. We're excited to add Cloud Elements to our portfolio and be part of their future growth in this rapidly expanding market."

Cloud Elements will use the funding to add new capabilities to its platform, while extending its sales, marketing and customer success capabilities in the U.S. and Europe to drive broad market adoption. The company believes four key trends will fuel its growth: 1) Continued proliferation of public and private APIs in the "API economy"; 2) Growing adoption of software-as-a-service (SaaS) and the need to integrate best-of-breed applications; 3) Vertical integration requirements for fintech, health tech and other fast-growing markets; and 4) Increased investment in digital transformation initiatives by large enterprises – and the need to simplify and automate business processes across applications.

About Mercato Partners
Based in Salt Lake City, Mercato Partners is a growth equity firm built to provide both capital and guidance for rapidly expanding companies in the technology and branded consumer segments. The experienced Mercato team of investors, analysts, and in-house performance operators navigate a sea of opportunities to fund high-growth companies and help them unlock extraordinary returns through committed collaboration. For more information, please visit www.mercatopartners.com.

About Cloud Elements
Cloud Elements brings harmony to the world of APIs, allowing software providers to innovate faster and plug into digital ecosystems. The company's one-to-many virtualized API integration platform enables developers to unify thousands of APIs, build common data models for core business functions, and reduce the pain, cost and complexity of integration. Founded in 2012, Cloud Elements is headquartered in Denver, Colo., and serves customers worldwide. More information can be found at www.cloud-elements.com.