Appirio raises $10M to bring business into the cloud

Appirio, a startup that integrates online business applications and platforms, has raised $10 million in a third round of funding.

The San Mateo, Calif. company developed three of the seven bestselling applications in Salesforce.com‘s AppExchange, including the No. 1 app, which synchronizes users’ calendars in Salesforce and Google Apps. It also developed an application that integrates Facebook with Salesforce, allowing companies to recruit and market on the social network. And oh yeah, it provides various professional services to help companies move into cloud computing, too. Chief executive Chris Barbin says there are currently 2,500 companies using Appirio’s products, and that it has 150 enterprise consulting clients.

Tying everything together is Barbin’s goal to help businesses bring the many internet “clouds” together.

It seems a bit soon for Appirio to be raising more money, since it announced its first round little more than a year ago, and its second round in July. Barbin says the new funding will be spent in three broad areas: Building more products for the major web platforms, like Google’s App Engine; adding to its workforce; and developing partnerships with other companies. Appirio’s will also kick off operations in Japan, marking its first international expansion.

GGV Capital led the round with an investment of $8.2 million, and previous backer Sequoia Capital contributed $1.8 million. Appirio has raised $16.7 million in all.

Next Story: Ethanol's a bust, so move to chemicals, says Genomatica
Previous Story: Aster Data raises $5M more for data warehousing