Kickstarter-funded file-storage gadget Lima lands $2.5M

Sure, Kickstarter is filled with all sorts or trinkets and projects that will never see the light of day even if they reach their goals.

But there are also useful projects for your digital needs that are so good they end up raising a whole $2.5 million as a first real institutional round. We’re talking about Lima, a little device that stores all of your mobile device’s content.

It’s a small hardware device with a universal app (meaning, it works with any operating system) that stores your digital files. You can access your stored files from any Mac OS, Windows, Linux, iOS, or Android device simply by plugging the Lima into it.

“With the explosion of tablets and smartphones, our data is becoming more scattered and fragmented, making it harder than ever to consolidate and access what matters most,” said Lima cofounder and chief executive Severin Marcombes.

Unlike the traditional cloud storage systems we’ve been using, such as Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive, and so on, Lima wants to hold all of your files in one place so you never have to switch between different storage systems and devices.

Lima, started by Marcombes and Gawen Arab, initially raised $1.2 million in its 2013 Kickstarter campaign. It’s new $2.5 million comes entirely from Partech Ventures.

“Lima is one of the most ambitious products we’ve seen in the last decade,” said Philippe Collombel, General Partner of Partech Ventures. “The team has an innovative approach to the explosive issue of personal data and has the potential to rebuild a 20 year old file storage process. We believe Lima will solve the siloed data issue so prevalent around the globe.”

“There’s a huge shift from having one computer to having multiple connected devices. Lima gives consumers control through a transparent and ubiquitous platform that effortlessly consolidates all their digital belongings across devices,” said Romain Lavault of Partech Ventures.

The company will use this new funding to expand its engineering, marketing, sales, and distribution efforts and to build a strategy to get into the North American, European, and Asian markets.

On Kickstarter, Lima reached its funding goal in less than 12 hours, from 13,000 backers, and became Kickstarter’s 13th most funded technology project.

Update: Some of Lima’s backers appear to be very unhappy with CGC, Lima’s maker, according to backer comments on Lima’s Kickstarter page. The Lima was supposed to ship to backers between Dec. 2013 and April 2014, depending on their pledge tier, although the company maintains that it plans to ship in July according to its replies to backer comments.

Its most recent update to backers states that the new funding will help it “expand our resources so we can accelerate not just our development but ensure we can deliver you the best possible product. Our goal is not just to ship you a product, but a product that is well tested and that you’ll love to use.”