Splunk Pulls In $25 Million

Splunk specializes in IT search, and, to answer a question I know you’re already asking, a Wikipedia entry states that “[t]he name ‘Splunk’ is a reference to data mining.”  Now, with that out of the way, the real news: Splunk just received $25 million in funding in a round led by Ignition Partners.

Congratulations are in order.  But so, perhaps, are a few more questions.  After all, Splunk already lists NASA, Visa, and Vodafone among its customers.  And LinkedIn, the United States Department of Justice, and Yahoo.  So why would such a successful company go asking for more money?

“We have a deep pipeline of ideas and innovations to bring our users, and expand the footprint of search in the data center,” explained Michael Baum, Splunk’s co-founder and CEO, in a press release.  “We decided to partner with Ignition so we can go even faster and leverage our first mover advantage.”

Fair enough.  Previous episodes of funding at Splunk raised $5 and $10 million (Series A and Series B, respectively), so the new Series C round represents a substantial gain.  And since a total of $15 million has gotten Splunk this far, it should be interesting to see what the company can do with a fresh $25 mil.

Hat tip to John Cook of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.