Kaminario bags $75m in latest funding round

All-flash start-up claims cash will go on EMEA expansion and a channel push

Flash firm Kaminario has said it will spend its latest $75m (£61.6m) funding round on a channel push, and expansion across the EMEA region.

The Massachusetts firm said today it has secured $75m of funding, bringing its total funding to $218m. The latest round was led by private equity firm Waterwood and participated in by a mix of new and current investors.

It claims the money will be spent on boosting its go-to-market activities and expanding its global reach, specifically in eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

The all-flash firm first started making a splash in the UK channel about two years ago, and in autumn 2015 a number of UK channel faces joined the firm when ex-Commtech man Mark Walker became its UK channel director, and former Pure Storage man Vince Blackall took over its EMEA business. It appointed CMS distribution around the same time.

During its 2015 UK push, Kaminario took aim at Pure Storage - another all-flash firm which made its name by picking fights with EMC. At the time, Kaminario poured cold water on Pure's latest technology launch and continues to compete against the firm - and other all-flash players - today.

IDC has high hopes for the all-flash array market, claiming it will grow at a five-year CAGR of 21.4 per cent to 2020, making it the fastest-growing part of the storage market.

"Our strong business growth, cutting-edge technology and the all-flash market opportunity make Kaminario very attractive to investors and partners alike," said Dani Golan, founder of Kaminario. "The role of the datacentre is transforming as businesses continue to accelerate digital transformation and cloud adoption, and we are perfectly positioned to deliver agile storage solutions for today's on-demand applications. This new funding will allow us to continue our global expansion and accelerate our innovation agenda to better serve our customers."

Bruce Hockin, director of solutions at Cloud Distribution, said he thinks the funding round is a good sign for the storage market.

"I was surprised by their announcement because a lot of the organisations I am speaking to, particularly those seeking funding rounds, have moved away from a pure-play storage environment," he said. "They look instead at addressing it through hyperconvergence, or the value around software. This proves that Kaminario have a sufficiently differentiated product and software stack that allows them to compete in what is becoming a fast-commoditising space. That's good news, and it's good news that investors trust their plans. Right now $75m is an awful lot.

"I think it's great and it is a good validation of their technology in the market."

Hockin added that it "remains to be seen" whether Kaminario can enjoy the same success as Pure Storage.

"They don't need to invest it in technology, they need to invest it in marketing and growth," he said. "It will be really interesting to see how they spend the money."