SwiftStack Secures $16 Million in Funding, Total at $24 million

SwiftStack, Inc., in software-defined storage for the cloud, closed $16 million in funding from both new and existing investors to scale its efforts to enable massive storage scalability for the enterprise simply and affordably.

The Series B round was led with a substantial investment from OpenView Venture Partners as well as existing investors Mayfield Fund, Storm Ventures and UMC Capital.

The new resources will be used to expand go-to-market and customer engagement efforts. With this $16 million investment, SwiftStack has now raised a total of $23.6 million.

As enterprises brace themselves for the exponential explosion of unstructured data volumes, they are demanding the flexibility and cost advantages that come from open source software and commodity hardware. The object storage market has grown considerably over the last couple years and is forecasted, according to Gartner, to grow at a CAGR of 20% from 2012 through 2016, reaching $456 million by 2016.

SwiftStack’s software-defined object storage platform, built on the OpenStack Swift object storage engine, and track record is positioned to take it on.

“There’s been a sea change in the adoption of enterprise storage solutions, and object storage is a front-seat technology poised to be general purpose storage likely to supplant today’s use of expensive SAN and NAS devices,” said Joe Arnold, CEO, SwiftStack. “Our disruptive technology and engagement model will leapfrog traditional enterprise storage software vendors in the race to deliver the storage scalability customers want, the way they want to buy it. With this new infusion of resources we’ll be able to scale on our vision to give customers an affordable, scalable, manageable and simple storage solution.”

The leading investor, OpenView Venture Partners, specializes in scaling out B2B software companies and has expertise in enterprise go-to-market strategies. Daniel Demmer, operating partner at OpenView, will join the SwiftStack board. He has a background in high-growth enterprise software companies. Prior to joining OpenView, he was president and CFO of Endeca Technologies which was acquired by Oracle in 2011.

“The world of storage has been unhinged by the growth of unstructured data with enterprises clamoring for greater flexibility and affordability,” said Demmer. “SwiftStack occupies a unique place in the market with its powerful platform, expert team and dynamic customer engagement model. This new round of financing allows the team to continue ushering in a new era of reliable, cost effective, redundant and highly scalable storage solutions.”

SwiftStack is being put to use by the companies including eBay, HP, Time Warner Cable and Pac-12 Networks.