Austin Ventures is behind the investment, and although you may not have heard of the companies this firm has supported – Agere Systems, Dazel, Waveset – you’ve probably heard of the corporations that tend to acquire them – Lucent, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems.  This bodes well for the future of FiveRuns.

In a statement, Olivier Thierry, the president and CEO of FiveRuns, also added, “All of the industry signposts are pointing to Rails becoming a significant framework for web application development.  FiveRuns is squarely positioned to augment this wave by delivering products in support of its growth. . . .  [W]e continue to support the Rails community as the adoption accelerates.”

Thierry only recently came by the right to include himself in FiveRuns’s “we” – he, along with Dean Cruse and Steve Sanderson, are fresh additions to the team.  All three men have extensive backgrounds in software, however.  Cruse will serve as vice president of marketing and Sanderson will act as the vice president of development and technology.

Perhaps, with all these things going its way, FiveRuns’s next announcement will relate to a feat in the neighborhood of $50 million.