Nexenta secures $21M to grow big data clientele

Menlo Partners shows its continued interest in big data by getting behind Nexenta's growth

There seems to be enough demand for big data storage and protection for many of the companies in the field to experience exceptional growth and continue to pull in more funding.

Nexenta Systems announced Wednesday that it secured more than $21 million in a Series C round of funding. This round was led by Menlo Partners and included participation from Sierra Ventures and Razor's Edge Ventures. The Mountain View-based company received this capital after experiencing 400% growth year-over-year for the last three years.

Enterprise storage has been a booming industry as companies are looking to secure and bring to the cloud all the data that runs through business networks.

Over the past year,  Nexenta was able to reach $300 million in hardware sales and serve more than 4,000 customers.  

This round of funding will be used to sustain the company’s growth, pace of innovation and global expansion to meet the rapid demand for the company’s solutions.

Big data getting much bigger

It definitely takes some cash and clout to compete against Box, which told VatorNews this winter that it was adding 100,000 new users each week and is seeing a tripling in revenue from last year. Box just raised $81 million, and reportedly turned down a $500 million acquisition offer. As of the middle of December, the six-year-old company reached eight million users and more than 100,000 companies.

Code 42 Software announced Tuesday afternoon that it pulled in a $52.5 million Series A round of funding let by Accel Partners. It also received participation from Split Rock Partners. The Accel money was the first distribution from its $100 million Big Data Fund, unveiled in early November. 

The Big Data Fund is the first dedicated fund to a specific vertical in Accel’s history. The fund, which is made up of Accel’s existing capital, will be devoted to funding innovation across entire “big data stack” from infrastructure to enterprise applications.

The ‘Big Data’ fund is managed by multiple Accel partners in US, Europe, China, and India, including Ping Li, Rich Wong, and Andrew Braccia. Accel will also be partnering with thought leading big data advisors such as data scientists, software entrepreneurs, technologists and researchers to serve as a ‘guiding light’ to help think through investments and track entrepreneurs doing interesting things in the space.

Up until this point, Code 42 has been entirely self-funded and reached businesses in more than 200 countries. Over the last three years, the company has seen substantial revenue growth (500%) and has reached a staff of 86 individuals.

“Legacy storage companies, with their reliance on customer lock-in and out of date technical foundations, are not able to address today’s exponential growth in storage demand,” said Nexenta CEO Evan Powell in a statement. “Most new storage start-ups simply perpetuate the same old ‘lock ‘em in’ business model, with a snazzier name plate on the array and unproven software under the hood. This investment will enable us to make enterprise class storage for everyone a reality for tens of thousands more partners and end users around the world.”

Menlo Partners is a smart partner in big data for Nexenta since the venture firm has had a strong track record of successful investments in the storage space including investments in 3Par, Spinnaker Networks, Pliant and Carbonite.