BlackRock Leads Qumulo’s $125M Series E To Accelerate Data Platform

Seattle storage company Qumulo secured a $125 million Series E round of funding, putting it in unicorn status with a $1.2 billion valuation, the company said Thursday.

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BlackRock led the round with participation from Highland Capital Partners, Madrona Venture Group and Kleiner Perkins, as well as new investor Amity Ventures. The new investment gives Qumulo a total funding raise of $351 million, the company said in a written statement. It is also the largest round of venture-backed funding since the company’s inception in 2012, according to Crunchbase data. The company raised its $93 million Series D in 2018.

Qumulo’s data platform helps organizations create and manage their file data so they can gain value from it at scale. Samir Menon, director at BlackRock Private Equity Partners, said in a written statement that Qumulo has tapped into a new category within the enterprise data management space and is taking on the “challenge of creating and managing digital content at a scale and performance that is only getting bigger.”

The company manages more than 150 billion files for customers, said Qumulo CEO Bill Richter in a written statement. The new funding will be used to expand internationally, accelerate innovation to democratize file data management in multicloud environments, and develop strategic partnerships.

“It will help Qumulo accelerate our ability to serve the world’s leading enterprises with the freedom, control and performance that organizations need now more than ever,” he said. “We see rapidly increasing demand driven from content creators which span artists creating Hollywood blockbusters, to researchers solving global pandemics, to engineers putting rockets into space.”

Although Qumulo is more established in the data storage space, other startups in the sector have also had success in raising funds recently. In April, we reported on VAST Data raising a $100 million Series C round to reach unicorn status, as well as Cohesity’s $250 million round that doubled its valuation to $2.5 billion. Meanwhile, in May, Wasabi Technologies closed a $30 million Series B extension.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias