DataGravity has raised $50 million in new venture capital funding, less than two months after publicly releasing its big data automation platform for small and mid-sized businesses.
Accel Partners led the round, with partner Ping Li joining the Nashua, N.H.-based company’s board of directors. Returning shareholders include Andreesen Horowitz, Charles River Ventures and General Catalyst Partners.
DataGravity was formed two years ago by CEO Paula Long and president John Joseph, who previously had helped build storage company EqualLogic and sell it to Dell for $1.4 billion in cash. The idea this time around was to create a new type of storage platform that automatically indexes, secures and manages data that most companies have neither the time nor resources to analyze.
“When we’re talking to a potential customer, the first thing we do is ask their head of IT when was the last time they bought new storage, and what they did with it,” DataGravity CEO Paula Long explains. “They usually give this sheepish look, because they have no idea what they did, or didn’t, do with it. We tell them that we can help them actually see what’s in there, and tell them that looking at this information can prevent them from buying future storage they don’t really need. Or if they have a lot of storage for information that hasn’t been read/written or isn’t critical to the business, maybe they can move it off or delete it. Particularly if they have tons of video.”
The second thing Long tells companies is that they almost certainly have sensitive information held in unsecure locations — and that state fines for such misplaced files often cost more than does storage.
DataGravity made its debut product publicly available in October, and has the ability to add new features without having to rearchitect the back-end storage or metadata. So far, Long says she hasn’t seen any direct competitors, but rather has seen vendors offering to stitch together various existing offerings. “I suspect if I went down to Sand Hill Road a lot of people are pitching this sort of next generation data/storage product, and fully expect to see people start innovating in this space, but we really do seem to be there first.”
The company currently has 90 employees, and now has raised a total of $92 million.
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