Gridstore, which makes software that converts inexpensive, commodity disks into scale-out storage, closed a $ 12.5 million Series A round led by GGV Capital and Onset Ventures. That brings total funding, including seed money, to $ 15 million, the company said. The new cash will be used to build out its sales channels.
Gridstore is taking on companies like Nimbus and Pure Data that are betting that entrenching pricier solid-state storage is the way to go. For most applications, Gridstore would argue, flash storage is overkill. It also competes with storage giants NetApp and EMC, which have been in the market a long time and are pushing into new storage arenas while also trying to protect their existing legacy products.
Mountain View, Calif.-based Gridstore says it is going where the business is. In a statement, Kelly Murphy, CEO said:
It’s the end of big storage. The dynamics of enterprise storage requirements are changing and 30 year-old legacy technology doesn’t cut it anymore. Web-scale giants such as Amazon and Google have proven that … Businesses no longer have to accept monolithical systems that are expensive and can’t scale.
With this funding round, Glenn Solomon, a partner with GGV Capital is now on Gridstore’s board.
It’s easy to paint legacy storage companies as has-beens, but EMC, in particular, has shown a pretty strong ability to survive and prosper as storage technology matures and morphs.
Feature photo courtesy of Valery V. Markov
