AppDirect Raises $9M And Acquires Standing Cloud, An App Packaging Company

AppDirect has raised $9 million and is announcing the purchase of Standing Cloud, a Foundry Group investment. With the acquisition, Foundry Group is now the lead investor in AppDirect, which develops apps marketplaces for companies. iNovIa Capital also participated in the Series B investment, which brings the app marketplace’s total investment to $20.8 million.

The Standing Cloud technology packages apps for use with cloud services to ease the complexity of deploying and managing apps. AppDirect has the capability to use APIs to integrate third-party apps. With Standing Cloud, AppDirect will be able to offer a way to actually package apps and manage the orchestration into different marketplaces.

In addition to the funding news, AppDirect has announced it will serve as Cloud Foundry’s new add-on service for third-party app providers. The platform-as-a-service, managed by Pivotal, will use AppDirect to connect customers with services, such as New Relic, MongoDB and other apps that it recently integrated into its platform.

AppDirect took a new turn this summer with its API program, which provides developers with a way to connect with channel reseller partners that are using the platform. In this way, a developer making legal software can point an API to the partner selling the technology. Identity, provisioning and billing are the key endpoints that serve as the foundation for the service.

The Cloud Foundry news exemplifies how AppDirect now has the ability to integrate its apps marketplace into platform environments. For Cloud Foundry, it provides the PaaS with the ability to offer a way to integrate third-party apps similarly to how it serves as a platform for integrating with cloud services.