OSS provider Black Duck pulls in $20 million

Black Duck, a provider of open source software logistics, pulled in $20 million of venture funding Wednesday.

General Catalyst Partners led the round, which included previous investors.

Black Duck, based outside Boston, touts itself as the world’s only end-to-end OSS Logistics solution on the planet.  A heady boast surely, but Black Duck is nothing if not earnest in wanting to make it easier for companies looking to adapt and manage open source software.

Ultimately, they say, this helps businesses run their operations (for example, supply chain management).

To be sure, Black Duck does more than just produce software. In the spirit of open source, the company connects OSS developers through what they call the Black Duck Open Hub, provides commentary from open source experts on a blog called Open Source Delivers, and also hosts what they refer to as a Open Source Think Tank.

The company works closely with Fortune 1000 company’s, in order, as Black Duck puts it, “to dramatically improve software quality, hasten application development lifecycles, and improve compliance while mitigating security risks.” Clients adapting Black Duck’s OSS logistics include Dell, Intel, Samsung, Yahoo, and Airbus.

Black Duck has been around for a while and will use this latest cash windfall to build out business ops globally, according to chief executive Lou Shipley.

“Over the next 18 months, we will release powerful new solutions aimed at solving critical supply chain and software development challenges that have resulted from the explosive growth of OSS in enterprises worldwide,” Shipley said in a press release.

“Black Duck is among the first to recognize the need for a smarter, more efficient approach to streamlining, safeguarding, and managing the software development and deployment chain.”