Pure Storage, the all-flash enterprise storage array company, has closed an oversubscribed USD150m series E funding round with institutional investors – the single largest private funding in the history of the enterprise storage industry.
Led by T Rowe Price, Tiger Global Management and other public market investors, with participation by its previous venture capital investors Greylock Partners, Index Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Samsung Ventures and Sutter Hill Ventures, the new funding brings the company’s total capital raise to USD245m and puts the all-flash storage pioneer on-track for a future initial public offering (IPO).
Pure Storage will use the new funding to accelerate continued expansion of its European and Asia-based operations, grow its sales, support and marketing teams worldwide, and increase its investments in research and development.
Data Domain chief executive Frank Slootman has joined Pure Storage’s board of directors. A veteran of the enterprise data storage and software industries, Slootman was one of the company’s earliest supporters and angel investors, which also include VMware’s cofounders, former chief executive Diane Green and former chief technology officer Mendel Rosenblum. Slootman guided Data Domain from its market entry through IPO and currently serves as CEO of ServiceNow. Slootman will now take a more hands-on role with Pure Storage as a key strategic advisor.
“Pure Storage is experiencing much of what we did at Data Domain,” says Slootman. “They’re replacing one storage media (disk) with another (flash). They pioneered the use of inline data reduction to remove the cost hurdle for the media upgrade, and, as a result of being the first to get this right they are growing about as fast as companies can grow organically. I am glad to be able to offer my own perspective in driving and managing growth to the top tier board of directors and leadership team at Pure.”
