FinancialForce.com, the cloud enterprise resource planning company that sits atop of Salesforce Inc’s platform, has just announced a $110 million funding round to help it capitalize on the growing demand for cloud-based ERP solutions.

The latest funding round was led by Technology Crossover Ventures, and adds to the $50 million the firm raised back in April of last year. One of its previous backers, Salesforce Ventures, also participated in the current round.

With such a hefty amount of backing, speculation is being raised that FinancialForce may be looking towards an initial public offering (IPO) in the not-too-distant future. If so, it would surely be a very attractive prospect for investors, given the company’s claim it’s growing at a 91 percent annual clip with a revenue run rate of $50 million, plus some 450 employees on its books. Speaking to TechCrunch, FinancialForce CEO Jeremy Roche said that kind of momentum along with an increasing demand for back-office software was helping to attract a really solid backing. He explained that while front office software like CRM, marketing automation and content management tools drove the initial phase of cloud expansion, now customers were looking to shift back-office functions like ERP to the cloud as well.

As a result, Roche believes there’s a significant opportunity in the mid and fast growing SMB market for cloud-based accounting and project management solutions, and that FinancialForce is well positioned to grow aggressively in that market.

FinancialForce has been helped by a number of smart acquisitions its made to build out its functional base. The company is much more than just a financials vendor, because it now offers standalone professional services automation (PSA), supply chain management (SCM) and human capital management (HCM) solutions as well. Most of these offerings were created via acquisitions of smaller ecosystem partners, and the company is now well placed to expand its base of product offerings.

FinancialForce can now rightly be considered as a credible alternative to other cloud-based ERP vendors like its much larger and most natural competitor, NetSuite Inc., not too mention those who offer on-premise solutions.

The company certainly has a very rosy-looking future, and says it will use the new round of funds to further its product development, sales, marketing and support efforts.

Photo Credit: FutUndBeidl via Compfight cc