Druva, a cloud backup, data protection and governance tool, announced $25M in Series D funding today led by Sequoia Capital with Nexus Venture Partners and Tenaya Capital also contributing. The round comes just 10 months after completing their Series C round and brings their total funding to date to $92M.
In a crowded online backup field, CEO Jaspreet Singh, says they have differentiated themselves in a number of ways. First of all, they have concentrated strictly on the enterprise market, foregoing the SMB and consumer markets that bring with them the lure of big user numbers, but lower revenue.
Secondly, rather than being strictly a backup tool or sync and share, they have chosen a different route, what he says is more intelligent than simply offering “a data graveyard.” Instead, they look at data protection and governance on mobile devices, working with eDiscovery vendors like Recommind and AccessData to help companies entangled in litigation isolate and remove content involved in the lawsuit from the affected mobile devices with minimum possible disruption to the owner.
And thirdly they can provide mobile device recovery if a device is lost to get a user back up and running quickly, and they can help IT assess what if any essential data might have been compromised..
Druva does all this by keeping a record of content on mobile devices in the form of regular backups. The way it works, depending on the configuration, is when the mobile device is in the office connected to a company network either physically or over WiFi, Druva continuously captures whatever information IT has deemed important.
If you are off network, then the app throttles bandwidth and CPU and based on cost analysis of data versus risk, customers can choose how aggressive or passive they want to be in capturing data.
Singh says the approach allows them to offer a cloud storage alternative and puts them more in competition with traditional backup/governance/eDiscovery vendors like EMC, Symantec and HP than cloud storage vendors like Dropbox and Box. In fact, he says his sales typically involve both legal and IT, so it’s a bit of a different play than pure cloud storage would suggest.
The approach has gotten the attention of customers like NASA, Pfizer, Dell and Hitachi among others, and they have gained 900 customers since their last funding round, growing from 2100 to 3000 enterprise customers in the last 10 months.
Apparently, it’s also gotten the attention of investors because Singh says they weren’t even really looking for more money when Sequoia Capital approached them about giving them additional funds. He said this was because they recognized Druva could be at key point in its history. The company has been around since 2008, but Singh said after watching the steady growth and hearing about some new ideas for expanding the product, Sequoia wanted them completely focused on these new areas without worrying about money. Singh called these new ideas, “high value bets.”
He wasn’t ready to share what they are just yet, only saying he would have more information in the Fall. For now, he has $25M in additional funds to play with to help develop these new ideas. Druva also plans to put money into expanding the company’s presence in Asia and Europe by adding to the existing London office and opening an office in Tokyo to give them a foothold in the Asian market. He says, today the vast majority of their business comes from the US and he hopes to change that with increased investments in these areas.
As Singh said about the latest funding, “As competition heats up, this is good ammunition.” He added, “It’s good to raise money when people want to give you money [as opposed to having to ask for it].” In fact, it’s what every startup hopes for.
PHOTO CREDIT: (c) Can Stock Photo
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