SimpliVity, a newly de-stealthed Westborough, MA-based startup, is announcing today that it has pulled in a $25 million Series B round of financing, led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Return SimpliVity investors Accel Partners & Charles River Ventures also joined the deal, which brings the total equity funding SimpliVity has raised to $43 million.
That almost puts the company in the category of big Boston startup bets, which have raised $50 million and up in financing. But SimpliVity’s mission isn’t exactly small; CEO Doron Kempel told me this past summer that it was out to “simplify IT infrastructure” from the ground up.
SimpliVity’s premise is that hardware and software most businesses are using as their IT infrastructure are built on an antiquated model. As IT has evolved, vendors have stacked on new machines and functionality, resulting in a clunky and expensive system. The startup is looking to scrap this and start from the ground up with its OmniCube system, which immediately compresses and removes duplicate data, which enables it to efficiently handle storage needs and Web optimization. It can even function as a server system for a company when paired with other OmniCubes. SimpliVity is now working on marketing to customers, particularly resellers that work with IT departments, and recently set up a booth at the VMWorld cloud computing conference in San Francisco to do so.
“We’re using those funds to ready ourselves to what we expect to be hyper growth in 2013,” Kempel says. “There’s a huge opportunity not only to sell products but also to transform the market.”
As far as selecting its new Series B investor, Kempel says SimpliVity went with Menlo Park, CA-based Kleiner Perkins not just for its capital, but for its “gravitas in the market” and the “access they have to the industry.” The venture firm’s previous investments include Amazon, AOL, Citrix, Facebook, and Sun Microsystems.
