Spiceworks Raises $25 Million to Bring Integrated Commerce to World’s Largest Social Network of IT Buyers

AUSTIN, Texas – April 28, 2011 – Spiceworks™, Inc. today announced it has closed a $25 million financing round with new investors Adams Street Partners and Tenaya Capital and participation from existing investors. The series D funding will support expansion of the Spiceworks business model to include integrated commerce within the Spiceworks social business network for IT professionals and technology vendors.

“The average business in the Spiceworks network spends over $275,000 annually on technology,” said Scott Abel, co-founder and CEO of Spiceworks. “By marrying social networking, IT management and commerce, we’re transforming how businesses will discover, research, and buy products and services in the trillion dollar IT industry.”

With more than 25 percent of the world’s small and mid-sized business (SMB) IT professionals in Spiceworks, it’s the largest and fastest-growing social business network for IT. Currently, more than 1.4 million IT pros rely on Spiceworks to discover, buy and manage $244 billion worth of technology products and services each year. Over 200 top technology providers, including Microsoft, Google, Dell and Intel, use Spiceworks to connect directly with IT buyers through the company’s Vendor Pages and social marketing programs.

In addition to helping IT professionals manage their networks, Spiceworks allows them to create purchase lists, renew warranties, and buy cloud services from select vendors. Over the next year, the company will deliver more social commerce capabilities, such as group purchasing and deals, integrated request for quote with the leading technology vendors, and the purchasing of IT products and services built directly into the workflow of the application.

“What Groupon and Facebook are doing for commerce in the consumer market, Spiceworks is doing for IT buying in the business market,” said Jeff Diehl, partner of Adams Street Partners. “The company’s unique blend of IT business applications, community and commerce has created a powerful social marketplace and more efficient channel for the technology industry.”

The Spiceworks social business network for IT combines free network management, network monitoring and help desk software with a rapidly growing and active Facebook-like community of IT professionals. Organizations of all sizes use Spiceworks to discover, buy and manage technology in a social way.