Sumo Logic is a cloud-native, log-management and security-analytics platform that collects, manages and analyzes log data. It provides enterprises with real-time operational and security insights across its applications and infrastructure, whether the data resides in the cloud or on premise.

Background:

Battery competed against banks and cross-over funds to invest in the company’s pre-IPO round. As CEO Ramin Sayar prepared the company for a public listing, he wanted an investment partner that, like him, saw the IPO as just one step in the company’s journey and would be committed to the long-term success of the company. With a deep and long-standing relationship with Battery’s General Partner Dharmesh Thakker, Sayar chose Battery to lead the round in 2019.

Thakker and Sayar’s relationship dated back over a decade to Sayar’s previous role at VMware. There, he acquired a company that was one of Thakker’s first venture investments from Thakker’s days at Intel Capital. More recently, Sayar and Thakker were fellow board members for Battery portfolio company JFrog, where Sayar served as an independent member. Further, Battery, with a stage-agnostic investment approach, had followed Sumo Logic from the time of its Series A financing round, always aiming to be helpful to the company even before officially investing.

Battery’s Impact:

• Sumo Logic was in the process of filing for its IPO in early 2020 just as the Covid-19 health crisis swept across the globe. Battery was helpful in advising on calculated-risk decisions that would enable the company to weather the initial impact of the global crisis without disrupting the company’s IPO plans.

Outcome:

Sumo Logic went public in September 2020 (NASDAQ: SUMO). Viewing the IPO as a milestone–and not the end of the journey–and as long-term, committed investors, Battery purchased shares in the IPO.