Backupify raises $5 million to save your cloud data

Google Apps and social media users alike can benefit from the backup solution

Backupify, provider of data protection and management services for cloud-based applications, announced Thursday that it has secured $5 million in Series B funding led by Avalon Ventures, with additional participation from General Catalyst and Lowercase Capital. All three are previous backers.

Almost exactly a year ago, the company closed its $4.5 million Series A which, combined with its seed funding and today’s Series B, brings total capital raised to $10.4 million.

As more and more users transition from traditional office suites to the cloud, there’s a growing tendency to think that there’s little use for backup solutions. After all, isn’t the point of the cloud that it automatically backs up everything for us?

Well, as Backupify proclaims in all caps on its home page: DATA LOSS HAPPENS. And it could even happen to big names like Google or Facebook.

With this in mind, Backupify provides an archiving, search and restore service for all your data hosted in the cloud on Google Apps (Gmail, Docs, Sites, Calendar, Contacts, Picasa), Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Blogger, Zoho and LinkedIn. One account gives you centralized access to all the services you want to backup regularly. There are different price points and subscription plans for social media backups versus Google Apps backups, however.

“We are very excited about the company’s vision and potential,” said Rich Levandov, managing director of Avalon Ventures. “Companies moving to the cloud require tools and services to protect and manage their data, and Backupify has the foresight and talent to be a market leader in this space.”

As part of today’s deal, Brady Bohrmann, another managing director of Avalon Ventures, will join Levandov on Backupify’s Board of Directors. (It’s a little bit unusual to have two representatives from one VC firm sitting on one company’s board, but it can happen.)

The new funding will be used to further develop its backup solution for the full Google Apps suite, improve functionality and launch new services for the cloud.