PernixData, a startup looking to make the most of data center flash, grabs $35M

PernixData, which heps companies combine all the flash storage and memory inside all the servers in their data centers, announced today a $35 million round of new venture funding.

PernixData focuses on data centers that deploy VMware’s software for virtualizing servers to run multiple virtual machines, all of which can separately run applications. In a statement on the funding today, Poojan Kumar, the startup’s chief executive and a co-founder, said PernixData wants to provide its software “globally to all virtualized data centers.” That could mean it will start focusing more on other virtualization technologies, including the open-source KVM and Microsoft’s Hyper-V hypervisors.

The general storage virtualization area has attracted plenty of venture funding and acquisition interest — recall, for instance, EMC’s ScaleIO buy and more recently, Sandisk’s decision to buy struggling Fusion-io — as more companies adopt flash to store and server up data faster than they can with disk. That’s especially true as the price of flash pushes in a downward direction.

The startup launched in February 2013. PernixData now employs 120 people, a spokeswoman wrote in an email to VentureBeat. To date, PernixData has raised $62 million.

Menlo Ventures led the latest funding round. Salesforce.com chief executive Marc Benioff, Jim Davidson of Silver Lake, Seagate chief executive Steve Luczo, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Lane Bess, Mark Leslie, and John Thompson also participated.

Customers include Barley Snyder, Tata Steel, Tidelands Bank, and the University of Georgia.