Telerik, a leading vendor of software tools and components which allow developers to rapidly build cutting-edge web and desktop applications, today announced that it has received an investment from Summit Partners, a private equity and venture capital firm that has raised more than $11 billion since inception. The investment will be used to fund both organic growth and acquisitions.

Founded in 2002, Telerik offers a dynamic portfolio of products which can be used to build powerful web and desktop applications that are run using the latest Microsoft technologies, such as ASP.NET, Windows Forms, Windows Presentation Foundation, and Silverlight. Building on the company’s expertise in interface development and Microsoft frameworks, Telerik’s software helps customers build applications with unparalleled richness, responsiveness and interactivity—quickly and inexpensively.

Telerik also provides Sitefinity, a rapidly growing web content management system that substantially reduces the amount of time required to produce and manage websites, portals, and intranets.

More than 20,000 organizations in more than 70 countries — including Fortune 500 companies such as Vodafone, Citigroup, Kodak, and Nike, as well as renowned educational, governmental and not-for-profit institutions including NASA, The World Bank, and Harvard University — rely on Telerik’s products.

Telerik has won numerous technical and business awards. The company was named to the Red Herring 100 list for Europe in 2008, and was recognized as the Best Employer in Bulgaria for small to medium sized companies by Hewitt Associates.

Vassil Terziev, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Telerik, said, “Telerik has been 100 percent employee-owned and profitable throughout our rapid growth. The decision to raise outside capital was an important and strategic move for Telerik, and we believe that Summit will assist us in achieving even greater results.” Svetozar Georgiev, Telerik’s Co-founder and Co-CEO, added, “With Summit’s strategic guidance and global network of contacts, we are now uniquely positioned to expand Telerik’s product offering and achieve continued optimal growth — allowing us to become the sole source of a software developer’s needs.”

Tom Jennings, a Managing Director with Summit Partners, said, “We have been impressed by Telerik’s track record and exceptional management team, as well as the company’s unwavering focus on delivering technologically innovative and reliable products to developers.” “Summit has a twenty-year track record of investing in software companies, and Telerik shares many attributes that have helped other companies become market leaders. We look forward to working with the management team to help Telerik achieve even greater success.”