ScaleXtreme’s $11M, led by Ignition and Accel, Shows Stronger Valley Ties with the Northwest

Personal connections between Silicon Valley and the Pacific Northwest are what make deals flow between the two regions. Today’s example is Bellevue, WA-based Ignition Partners taking the lead role for an $11 million Series B investment in Palo Alto, CA’s ScaleXtreme, a provider of online IT management software.

This particular cross-border connection is personified by Ignition managing director Frank Artale, a software industry veteran who joined Ignition in February. Artale, a former Microsoftie, returned to the Seattle area from California, where he most recently served as business development vice president at Citrix Systems and a venture development team member at Accel Partners.

Accel previously invested in ScaleXtreme, and returns in the Series B round announced today. Artale is joining ScaleXtreme’s board.

“There is a dramatic shift going on in the computing industry with the advent of virtualization and public cloud computing – and with this, there is a significant opportunity for some company to transform the management of the new computing landscape,” ScaleXtreme CEO Nand Mulchandani said in a press release. Mulchandani praised Artale’s extensive industry knowledge, and added that he also brings “one of the strongest professional networks in the space.”

Author: Curt Woodward

Curt covered technology and innovation in the Boston area for Xconomy. He previously worked in Xconomy’s Seattle bureau and continued some coverage of Seattle-area tech companies, including Amazon and Microsoft. Curt joined Xconomy in February 2011 after nearly nine years with The Associated Press, the world's largest news organization. He worked in three states and covered a wide variety of beats for the AP, including business, law, politics, government, and general mayhem. A native Washingtonian, Curt earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. As a past president of the state's Capitol Correspondents Association, he led efforts to expand statehouse press credentialing to online news outlets for the first time.