Flash memory company SanDisk, and reportedly US-based technology company Cisco, have backed data storage company Whiptail, in a $31m round.
The series C round was joined by venture firms Ignition Partners, RRE Ventures and Spring Mountain Capital, with Silicon Valley Bank providing debt financing.
Cisco’s involvement was reported by news provider TechCrunch, after Whiptail disclosed the round had “an unnamed Silicon Valley industry titan”.
SanDisk’s investment came through its newly launched corporate venturing unit SanDisk Ventures.
Sandisk Ventures said it had $75m to invest during the next three years. It said it would be sourcing investments in next generation memory, flash-controllers, enterprise storage systems, storage virtualisation, cloud storage services and software, and consumer-based wireless flash storage.
Sumit Sadana, executive vice president and chief strategy officer at SanDisk, said: “Enterprise storage represents a significant growth opportunity for flash, and SanDisk is excited to invest in innovative companies such as Whiptail, which are bringing breakthrough system solutions to their enterprise customers. Increasingly, customers are turning to flash-based solutions to address the need to access big data at lightning-fast speed, and do so with elegant, scalable, power-efficient systems from leading companies like Whiptail.”
Catherine Chandler, former chief financial officer (CFO) of Vitrue and Liaison Technologies, has also joined Whiptail as CFO.
Dan Crain, chief executive of Whiptail, said: “We go about our partnerships a little different than most companies in this industry, as we were always fully subscribed for all of our funding rounds. We are actually very selective about who we partner with, so we look very carefully at the culture of, and synergy with potential partners and make an informed decision.
Crain added: “SanDisk is a fantastic collection of people who care about the same things we care about, quality, customer experience, thoughtfulness, and focus. And they are the clear leader in flash innovation for the past quarter of a century.”