Arena Solutions, a provider of on-demand product lifecycle management software, has raised a $15 million Series D round of funding.

The round was led by new investor BA Venture Partners, and including investments from Otter Capital and individual investors Arthur Rock and Warren Hellman.

As a result of the financing, Rory O'Driscoll, managing director, BA Venture Partners will join the board.

Arena will use proceeds from the up round for product development and upping its sales and marketing efforts.

Arena Solutions' product, Arena PLM, provides a centralized environment for managing product data to help original equipment manufacturers, suppliers and outsourced partners collaborate in real time around one set of information, regardless of geographic location or IT infrastructure. The software is offered on demand rather than via a traditional license model.

Chief Executive Michael Topolovac said that the company would use proceeds from funding to develop a few more versions of its software for the automotive and other industries. Currently the company offers versions of its software for consumer products, medical devices and electronics companies.

O'Driscoll said Arena's on-demand platform enables it to reach areas of the PLM market not easily accessible to its traditional license competitors, Agile Software and MatrixOne.

"We believe there's a significant mid-market opportunity for an on-demand offering in the PLM space," O'Driscoll said.

Arena has around 200 customers, including Stanford University, Danger Inc., NeurOptics, Aruba Wireless Networks, IronPort Systems and SkyPilot Networks, Intuit and Sierra Wireless.

Topolovac said that Arena, which began selling its product in 2002, should be profitable by the end of 2006.

Arena raised a $5 million Series C round in 2003 and has raised just under $30 million to date.

The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company has 65 employees and will approximately double in size in the next twelve months.

http://www.arenasolutions.com