The economy may be slowing, but that doesn't seem to be a problem for Adaptive Planning, which develops web-based business performance management (BPM) software. This week, Adaptive Planning announced a $10 million venture capital round. Its investors include RBC Venture Partners, Cardinal Venture Capital, Monitor Ventures, and ONSET Ventures.

Adaptive is in a hot industry. Other players in the space have already agreed to massive buyouts, notably SAP (NYSE: SAP)'s acquisition of BusinessObjects and IBM (NYSE: IBM)'s purchase of Cognos.

Adaptive's focus is primarily on the small- to mid-sized market (SMB) space. "We think the market opportunity is wide open," said William Soward, the CEO of Adaptive Planning, in an interview with me. "By using subscriptions and an on-demand platform, we think we have a strong competitive position."

Another key: Adaptive Planning has a usable free version, which has been a great vehicle to upsell prospective customers.

Interestingly enough, Adaptive Planning may actually thrive in the slowing economy. "Our software helps companies improve their forecasting, reporting and budgeting," said Soward. "Such things are important in getting efficiencies from a business."

If you want to check out other VC deals, visit DealProfiles.com.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

This week, enterprise software developer, Cognos Incorporated (Nasdaq: COGN), agreed to pay $339 million for Applix, Inc. (Nasdaq: APLX), which develops financial performance management software. It's a red-hot area -- with dealmaking from biggies like Oracle Corporation (Nasdaq: ORCL) and SAP AG (ADR) (NYSE: SAP).

Another upstart in the space is Adaptive Planning. I had a chance to interview the company's CEO, William A. Soward.

Can you provide some background on Adaptive Planning?

A: Adaptive Planning makes it easy for midsized companies and divisions of large corporations to automate their key financial processes, including budgeting, forecasting, monthly and quarterly reporting, and ad hoc "what if?" analyses.

We present a new alternative that "bridges the gap" between spreadsheets and traditional enterprise software. Adaptive Planning is optimized for companies that have outgrown Excel but lack the personnel, time, or capital required to deploy complex and costly enterprise BPM or business intelligence applications. By automating their planning and reporting processes, companies are able to save time and money and make better, more informed business decisions-ultimately improving competitiveness.

Adaptive Planning is also optimized for the way small and midsized companies do business. We provide pre-defined templates to help small companies jumpstart the planning process, and deliver the powerful modeling and key features that mid-sized and larger companies need. And, whether customers choose to deploy their solution on-demand or on-site, they receive new product features on a quarterly basis.

Finally, Adaptive Planning is committed to being an excellent business partner for mid-sized companies. We have annual renewal rates of over 90 percent, and ranked among the top four vendors for customer satisfaction in a recent industry-wide survey by industry analyst firm BPM Partners.