US-based data storage management software developer WekaIO has completed a $31.7m series C round featuring corporates Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Mellanox Technologies, Nvidia, Seagate Technology and Western Digital.
Western Digital took part through its Western Digital Capital unit while fellow data storage technology producer Seagate, computing technology provider HPE, networking equipment producer Mellanox and graphics processing unit developer Nvidia invested directly.
WekaIO provides file storage software designed to help manage large data servers built for intensive computing applications like artificial intelligence, machine learning and technical computing.
The company claims the software enables hard disk-based storage systems to operate at speeds comparable to flash storage while offering features such as cloud-hosted data backup, restore checkpoints and disaster recovery tools.
The software can be deployed from servers purpose built by HPE, Western Digital and data storage product supplier Supermicro but it can also be used with common industry-standard servers and the Amazon Web Services cloud computing platform.
The series C cash will help fuel WekaIO’s market growth and international expansion as it strengthens its engineering, sales and marketing resources.
WekaIO said it has has now raised a total of $66.7m which would include an undisclosed sum supplied by Western Digital Capital in March 2019 as part of a strategic collaboration between the pair.
The company had already closed a series B round reportedly sized at $22.3m in 2016 that was led by Walden Riverwood Partners and backed by Qualcomm Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of semiconductor manufacturer Qualcomm.
VC firms Gemini Israel Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners also took part in the series B round along with unnamed additional investors. WekaIO had raised $10m in series A funding from undisclosed investors in 2014, according to the Register.