Exablox Adds Dell Ventures in Latest Funding Round

Object scale-out storage vendor Exablox has received an additional $16 million in series C funding, which the company plans to use to expand its online demand generation efforts and attract new partners in vertical markets.

Exablox secured Dell Ventures as its latest strategic investor, with the company joining existing investors DCM Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners and US Venture Partners. The latest investment has brought Exablox’s total funding to $38.5 million.

Company CEO Douglas Brockett said Exablox will utilize its new funds to drive the company’s scalable storage solutions and add marketing funds to its partner network. Exablox is known for its OneBlox scalable storage system and OneSystem management service, which allow companies to expand their storage capabilities as needed without provisioning their storage in bulk.

Brockett said the idea of scalable storage fits into the evolving as a service model that partners and customers continue to demand, especially since the need for additional storage continues to exceed customers’ ability to correctly predict the size of their future needs.

“The reality is that the storage technologies that have served organizations over the last few decades will not solve the business problems of the future,” said Brockett, in a statement. “Legacy storage vendors have held on to the old way of doing things for far too long, and the market is correcting itself. We believe storage should be as dynamic as the business it serves. ”

Brockett, who formerly served as vice president of Dell’s SonicWALL business, said Exablox will focus on growing its presence in adjacent vertical markets and attracting new partners internationally with the goal of effectively doubling its partner base over the next six months to a year. The company will also work with its partners to deliver co-marketing opportunities, develop training programs and plan customer interaction days.

IDC predicts the market for file and object-based storage will exceed $43.4 billion in 2018, with scale-out solutions expected to account for approximately 80 percent of the market.

“There are relatively few young companies that embrace the channel and midmarket from day one,” said Brockett, in an interview with The VAR Guy. “Our products are really engineered for [the midmarket] … and I think that’s a telling differentiator for us.”