Nutanix, a US-based computing and IT storage company backed by software producer SAP, closed a $140m series E round yesterday at a $2bn valuation.
The company did not disclose the identity of the investors, describing them only as “two premier Boston-based public market investors.” TechCrunch stated the backers are likely to be Wellington Management and Fidelity.
Nutanix has now raised approximately $312m in funding, including $101m from a series D round in January in which SAP Ventures, SAP’s corporate venturing unit, invested alongside Riverwood Capital, Khosla Ventures, Battery Ventures, Greenspring Associates, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital.
Goldman Sachs and Blumberg Capital are also among the company’s past investors.
The cash will be spent on sales, research and development, customer support and marketing as Nutanix seeks to compete with companies such as EMC, and the company’s CEO Dheeraj Pandey hinted in an accompanying blog post that Nutanix could go public in the next year or two.
“We raised an IPO-like amount, at an IPO-like valuation, in a private round with institutional investors who typically buy at IPO time,” Pandey said. “This company is not even five years old. Unicorns typically take 7+ years to liquidity. With our business momentum and our current valuation, we are already defying conventional laws of company-building.
“By staying private for another year or so, if we could take really good care of our employees, customers, and partners, we’d have built the foundation of a company that will take really good care of its investors when it’s public.”
– Photo courtesy of Nutanix