VAST Data secures $118m in new funding round

The data infrastructure company raised Series E financing led by Fidelity to advance its AI data platform

AI data vendor VAST Data has secured $118m in Series E funding led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and accompanied by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), BOND Capital, and Drive Capital.

The funding, VAST claimed, will advance its mission to deliver a new category of infrastructure that puts data at the centre of how systems think, react, and discover.

This is designed to empower organisations to effectively address their most pressing data challenges, enabling unprecedented advancements in technology, economics, social dynamics and scientific research.

The VAST Data platform unifies storage, database and containerised compute engine services into a single, scalable software platform architected from the ground up to power AI and GPU-accelerated tools in modern data centres and clouds.

"A new AI data stack is required," said Renen Hallak, CEO and co-founder of VAST Data. "To be truly impactful in this era of AI and deep learning, you not only want to have a lot of data, but also high-quality, well-organised data available at the right place and time.

"The VAST Data Platform delivers AI infrastructure that opens the door to automated discovery that can solve some of humanity's most complex challenges."

Scott Sandell, chairman, CEO and CIO at NEA added: "We believe that VAST Data is a pioneer in the AI GPU space. With deep learning at the centre of the massive AI movement we are experiencing, interest and investment in VAST Data has escalated, and we are thrilled to partner with the VAST Data team as they drive influence and innovation in the global AI technology sector."

The funding follows a year of "impressive business momentum", according to VAST.

At the end of Q3 financial year 2023, VAST Data passed $1bn in cumulative software bookings, achieved 3.3 times year-over-year growth, and maintained positive cash flow for the last 12 quarters with a gross margin of nearly 90 per cent.