SugarCRM lands $20 million venture round

SugarCRM has landed a $20 million venture investment round, designed to boost international expansion by the maker of open-source customer relationship management software, the company said Thursday.

Taking the lead on the funding was New Enterprise Associates, with existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Walden International joining in. That brings SugarCRM's total funding to $46 million.

The company plans to use the funds for not only research and development, but also increasing its global footprint--particularly in Europe and Asia.

SugarCRM, founded in 2004, released its Sugar 5.0 software in December. To date, the company has racked up over 4 million downloads of its commercial open-source CRM goodies and counts more than 60,000 community members.

With its infusion of funds, SugarCRM will have more leeway as it heads down the path toward an IPO within the next two years. But with the recent industry consolidation--case in point being Sun Microsystems' planned $1 billion merger with MySQL--SugarCRM may find that option just as tasty.