Scout APM, an aspiring New Relic alternative backed by private equity firm Camber Partners, has acquired exception monitoring software provider ExceptionTrap. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
This is technology M&A deal number 218 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2021. See all technology M&A deals for 2021 and 2020 listed here.
ExceptionTrap is an error tracking service with plug-ins for Ruby on Rails and PHP. Because of an open API, "it can also be used with your language of choice," the seller says.
Ahead of the ExceptionTrap acquisition, Scout APM raised $8 million in financing led by Camber Partners of San Francisco. Camber Partners Co-Founder Jason Hable has been Scout APM's CEO since 2020, according to LinkedIn.
In a prepared statement about the Scout APM investment, Camber Partners Co-Founder Scott Irwin said:
“Scout’s industry-leading observability and monitoring solutions are mission critical for developers building performant, cloud-native applications. We are excited to provide capital to accelerate Scout’s investment in new products, including the acquisition of ExceptionTrap, and to bring our own unique operational expertise in scaling SaaS go-to-market capabilities.”
It sounds like Camber Partners may have acquired some or all of Scout APM from Xenon Partners -- a private equity firm that purchased Scout APM in 2019. Xenon was not mentioned in the April 2021 Scout APM-Camber Partners press release.
Scout APM And Application Performance Monitoring: Market Focus
Scout APM develops application performance management (APM) software. The software helps developers and application administrators to monitor web application performance. Scout APM positions itself as APM "built for developers, by developers."
As businesses and service providers strive to monitor cloud and mobile user experience, demand for APM software is surging. Indeed, global APM spending will reach $15 billion by 2028 -- which represents an 11.31 percent compound annual growth rate from 2021, Data Bridge Market Research reports.
Scout APM's software allows developers and IT managers to monitor Ruby, Elixir, Phoenix, NodeJS, Python and PHP apps. Key customers include Broadcom, KPMG, Recurly and Root Insurance, Scout APM says. The company also hints that Adobe, Apple, The New York Times, and Sendgrid are customers.
Although APM tools are increasingly popular with MSPs (managed IT services provider), Scout APM's website doesn't specifically message to MSPs or channel partners.
Scout APM vs. New Relic and Cloud Monitoring Giants
Scout APM's key software rivals includes entrenched market giants such as Cisco AppDynamics, Datadog, Dynatrace and New Relic, among others. Amid that competitive set, Scout APM specifically promotes itself as a "powerful New Relic alternative."
Still, competing against New Relic and other established APM rivals won't be easy. Most of the major APM players have expanded beyond application monitoring to infrastructure, mobile and other types of monitoring. Moreover, the major APM players are now global businesses. For instance, New Relic's revenue was $166 million in Q3 of fiscal year 2021, according to a February 2021 earnings statement. Also, Datadog's revenue was $177 million in Q4 of fiscal 2020, according to a February 2021 earnings statement.
Privately held Scout APM -- founded by Andre Lewis, Charles Brian Quinn and Derek Haynes in 2008 -- doesn't disclose revenues. The company has 29 employees listed on LinkedIn -- compared to 2,230 for New Relic and 2,430 for Datadog.
A Scout APM sister company, known as Scout Server Monitoring, was acquired by SolarWinds in 2017. That Scout Server Monitoring product is now known as SolarWinds Pingdom.
