Telecommunications group SoftBank has led a $20m round for Nexenta Systems, a US-based developer of software-defined storage technology, as part of a strategic partnership agreement.
The round also featured Javelin Venture Partners, SV Booth Investments, SAB Capital, Lake Trail Capital, TRB Equity and Nexenta CEO Tarkan Maner.
Nexenta develops and markets data storage and backup software. Its open software-defined storage service has accumulated nearly 6,000 customers and has more than 1,800 petabytes of storage under management.
The partnership will give SoftBank strategic distribution rights for the Nexenta product portfolio in Japan, and includes an agreement that SoftBank and its affiliates will use Nexenta for their storage needs.
Nexenta had previously raised a $7.7m in series G funding from West Summit Capital and Javelin Ventures in late 2016, according to The Register.
The company had received undisclosed sums from SanDisk Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of flash storage provider SanDisk, in January 2014, and Dell Technologies Capital, a subsidiary of computing equipment maker Dell Technologies, in September 2014.
Presidio Ventures and UMC Capital, subsidiaries of conglomerate Sumitomo and chipmaker UMC, had joined Four Rivers Group, Menlo Ventures, TransLink Capital, Javelin Ventures, Sierra Ventures, Razor’s Edge Ventures and West Summit Capital for a $24m series D round in 2013.
Nexenta had previously secured $21m from Menlo Ventures, Sierra Ventures, Razor’s Edge Ventures, Javelin Venture Partners and TransLink Capital in 2011, and an undisclosed amount from telecoms firm Korea Telecom, Translink, Javelin and WTI the year before.