Microsoft Ventures Leads Investment in CNEX Labs for NVMe PCIe SSD Controller

CNEX Labs, Inc., a private semiconductor company developing solid-state storage controllers and software for cloud, hyperscale, and enterprise data centers, announced it has closed its series C round of financing led by Microsoft Ventures and joined by existing CNEX investors, bringing total funding to over $60 million to date.

CNEX delivers next-generation SSD technology critical to data center servers and storage for the trillion-dollar industry transition to the cloud. The company will use the funding for mass production and system integration for customers of its SSD controller products.

Worldwide data generation is expected to leap from four zettabytes per year in 2013 to 40 zettabytes per year by 2020. The sheer volume, variety, and velocity of data is driving the need for innovation in data center technology to store and deliver this data.

CNEX has teamed with tier-one data center customers and manufacturers of solid-state storage, including NAND flash and other storage media, to address these challenges with a patented, ground-up re-design of the traditional SSD controller architecture. Controller products are designed to meet the demanding requirements of the next generation of hyperscale computing, where storage performance, endurance, and power efficiency have become critical at these massive scales.

“CNEX is developing the next big innovation for solid-state storage through semiconductor and software solutions,” said Nagraj Kashyap, corporate VP, Microsoft. “As data generation grows, so too must storage systems. Our support will help CNEX accelerate its contribution to new breakthroughs in the evolution toward a cloud-first world.“

“We place a high value on the expertise that comes with this commitment from Microoft Ventures,” said Alan Armstrong, CEO and co-founder, CNEX Labs. “The industry sees impressive leadership from Microsoft in shaping a new generation of data centers, and the strategic guidance from Microsoft Ventures will be a key asset to CNEX as we launch our storage products into mass production for the global data center ecosystem.”