High-performance SSD storage provider Kaminario announced Monday that it has closed a $15 million Series C round of funding led by Globespan Capital Partners, with help from current investors Sequoia Capital and Pitango Venture Capital. The funding brings the company’s total raised to $34 million.

Founded in 2008, Kaminario specializes in solid state drive (SSD) storage, which, for the uninitiated (like myself), is like a network of flash memory modules that continue to retain memory after a computer is shut off, unlike traditional RAM.

In July 2010, Kaminario made a name for itself with its K2 high performance storage appliance, an SSD storage solution that uses off-the-shelf blade servers and SSD media to deliver both high performance and high availability. The company claims that K2 is currently the storage solution of choice for a number of major financial services firms, Web media companies, telecommunications companies, and government agencies.

“Since the K2’s introduction, we have seen the demand for our unique enterprise-class SSD storage grow continuously. We continue to attract customers of all sizes with one thing in common, an application where storage performance directly impacts their business,” said Dani Golan, co-founder and CEO of Kaminario, in a statement. “This new funding will allow us to expand our reach in the market and help more customers solve their application performance problems.”

The company plans to use the new funds to expand the K2 product line, sales distribution channels, and marketing.

The market for SSD storage is growing at a tremendous rate, but very few of these vendors can address true enterprise storage requirements,” said Venky Ganesan, managing partner at Globespan, in a statement. “Kaminario offers a revolutionary new approach, combining SSD performance with enterprise-class features that will allow mainstream applications to safely take full advantage of this exciting technology. We’re very excited to be partnering with Kaminario.”

In addition to the new funds, Kaminario also announced that Venky Ganesan will be joining its board of directors.

Kaminario was recently named a finalist in the 2011 Hot Companies and Best Products Awards by Network Products Guide. It was also named a “Top Ten Storage Startup” by InfoStor, as well as a “Cool Vendor” by Gartner. 

Image source: Kaminario.com