LinkedIn raises another $22.7 million; SAP among investors

LinkedIn has bolstered its war chest with a $22.7 million round of funding from the likes of Goldman Sachs, McGraw-Hill, SAP and Bessemer Venture Partners. In a blog post (Techmeme, statement), LinkedIn CEO Dan Nye said the latest round follows the $53 million the company raised in June. Add it all up and LinkedIn Series D round of financing raised $75.7 million. The D round of funding was led by Bain Capital Ventures.

What's notable about the latest financing round is the investors involved. For Goldman Sachs, the motive is clear. Goldman will likely be an underwriter for LinkedIn's IPO--someday. McGraw-Hill counts LinkedIn as a partner for BusinessWeek. But the connection to SAP may be most notable.

SAP (all BTL posts and resources) has talked up social networking and the connections to enterprise software. Becoming intimately involved with LinkedIn could have broader ramifications in enterprise software--especially if SAP were to provide strong hooks to LinkedIn's networking services.