Fabrik raises $24.9M more for file storage and sharing

Fabrik, a company that offer online storage and easy sharing of big files, has just closed a $24.9 million deal and added Ross Levinsohn, former President of Fox Interactive Media, to the board.

Its financing came primarily from 3i, with a small chunk from ComVentures.

As noted before, Fabrik competes in an increasingly crowded market, though their website reveals an effort to create a youthful brand (compare their site, for example, to YouSendIt, Box.net, and Omnidrive). Fabrik is now going after the consumer market, even as players like YouSendIt are going the other way, targeting professionals. Other related players include SoonR, Avvenu (see coverage here), and still more are listed here in Terence Pua’s piece about why storage will never quite be free.

Levinsohn, you’ll recall, spearheaded News Corporation’s plunge into the online world, overseeing, among other things, the development of Fox.com and the acquisition of MySpace, and his joining the board is indicative of Fabrik’s intention to push past the small business market and target consumers.

Also, unlike these other companies, Fabrik has expanded into hardware. Last February, they dropped $43M to buy SimpleTech, a major provider of external storage devices, (hard-drives, USB flash drives, etc). Until then, it had partnered with Seagate (makers of Maxtor). With hardware, it has also added Western Digital to its competition. Fabrik’s intention is to be the self-described “Apple of storage,” offering a line of hardware and software products whose components work best when used together.

Fabrik’s CEO Mike Cordano tells us his company was profitable before the infusion, but that it will allow them to expand their international efforts and diversify their offerings. What types of offerings these would be remains a secret for now.

The company told us late last year it had already raised $12 million in financing, and close to 90 percent of that is still in the bank, much of it coming from ComVentures. It has now raised a significant $36.9 million.