Virsto raises $12 million for virtual storage

InterWest leads Series B for startup developing solutions for virtualized storage systems

Virsto Software, developer of software for virtual machine storage, announced Wednesday that it has raised $12 million in a Series B round of funding led by InterWest Partners, with participation from previous investors August Capital and Canaan Partners.

The company last raised a $7 million Series A in June 2009, and it has raised over $20 million in total. As part of the Series B, InterWest partner Khaled Nasr will be joining Virsto's board of directors.

Virsto doesn’t sell storage, it sells multi-platform software that works an any kind of storage system. Specifically, the company works on solutions to unique storage problems created by virtualization.

In addition to the new funding, Virsto also announced that it has acquired EvoStor, which specializes in storage virtualization for VMware environments.

The just-raised round will primarily be used for the expansion of sales and marketing, which will necessarily involve some extra hiring. Of course, research and development remains an ongoing focus, and will also require some of the new cash.

“There’s always R&D to do,” said Mark Davis, CEO of Virsto. “We’re never going to be finished with our software.”

While not in the red-hot consumer Internet space, Virsto’s business is building infrastructure vital to many of the services we all use every day.