Panzura raises $15M to make cloud storage faster and more secure

Cloud storage company Panzura has closed a $15 million third round of funding. The San Jose, Calif.- based company provides Web-connected cloud storage that is faster than storage devices attached directly to locally hosted servers.

The company gives businesses cloud storage hardware that’s faster, more advanced and more secure than typical “tier 1″ storage solutions. Panzura’s aim is to simplify the way file-based storage is deployed, managed, and protected, emphasizing the ability to encrypt data so it can be sent over networks safely.

Opus Capital led the round, with participation from existing investors, Matrix Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Chevron Technology Ventures. The full press release follows:

Panzura Raises $15M Series C Round to Support International Expansion and Accelerate Enterprise Adoption of Its Global Cloud Storage Solution

Opus Capital Leads New Round with Participation from Returning Investors Matrix Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Chevron Technology Ventures

SAN JOSE, CA – June 19, 2012 – Panzura, a leading provider of global cloud storage solutions, today announced that the company has closed a $15 million Series C funding round led by Opus Capital with participation from its existing investors, Matrix Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Chevron Technology Ventures, the investment arm of the world’s third-largest oil conglomerate. Opus Capital General Partner Carl Showalter joins Panzura’s board of directors. The new round of funding brings the company’s total backing to $33 million. With plans to expand its domestic and international presence in 2012, Panzura will apply the new capital toward establishing a strong international sales presence, while simultaneously scaling its US-based marketing, sales and engineering operations. The company also plans to aggressively expand its channel ecosystem and explore joint development projects with strategic partners, while continuing to place a concerted emphasis on internal research and product development.

“The rapid growth of unstructured data and the desire to make content available to a globally distributed workforce pose a significant challenge for the modern enterprise,“ said Carl Showalter, general partner at Opus Capital. “Panzura’s solution elegantly solves these challenges. We are excited to work with an amazing team and look forward to supporting them in their ongoing mission to put the power and extensibility of the cloud within reach of the modern enterprise.”

Panzura recently announced sweeping updates to its flagship product, the Panzura Global Cloud Storage System that included the third generation release of its Panzura operating system (PZOS3) and a newly enhanced version of its Quicksilver Cloud Storage Controller. Panzura offers the only cloud-integrated storage system capable of delivering truly enterprise-class solutions, with true network attached storage (NAS) functionality, native cloud support, a globally distributed file system, built-in enterprise security and data protection, as well as high speed data transfer rates to and from the cloud, all in a single, seamless data storage solution with unlimited scalability. The PZOS3 solution was recently recognized as a Best of Interop award winner in the Data Center and Storage category at the 2012 Interop Conference.

CEO Randy Chou and CTO John Taylor cofounded the company in July 2008 with a team of expert engineers. Prior to Panzura, Chou and Taylor developed the core security and performance technology at wireless networking leader Aruba Networks and the application delivery technology in Alteon WebSystem’s Layer 4-7 switching products.

“Panzura is honored to add the expertise of our new partners at Opus Capital, with the addition of industry veteran Carl Showalter to our board, and are encouraged by the ongoing support of our longtime partners at Matrix Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Chevron Technology Ventures,” said Randy Chou, CEO and co-founder of Panzura. “Panzura provides a viable cloud-based solution for the enterprise that directly enables high-value business objectives – such as improved cost, scale, availability and global access – while fitting seamlessly into existing IT infrastructures. With the support of this Series C round, Panzura looks forward to the further innovation and development of global cloud-integrated storage solutions.”