Data platform startup VAST Data made waves this week with the announcement of $118 million in Series E funding. The round, led by Fidelity Management & Research Company with participation from NEA, BOND Capital, and Drive Capital, values the company at a whopping $9.1 billion – nearly triple its previous valuation.
This latest cash infusion cements VAST Data’s position as a leader in next-generation infrastructure for artificial intelligence and deep learning applications. The company will use the funding to advance its mission of creating a unified data platform that breaks down barriers around processing speed, scale, and ease-of-use.
Since its founding in 2019, VAST Data has achieved impressive growth metrics, surpassing $1 billion in cumulative bookings in 2022. It grew software revenues by 330% year-over-year in its last fiscal quarter while maintaining positive cash flow for 12 straight quarters. The company now employs over 700 people globally.
A Growing Roster of AI-Focused Customers
VAST Data’s customer base reads like a “who’s who” of organizations pushing the boundaries of AI, from U.S. defense agencies to top research hospitals. Clients include Booking Holdings, the U.S. Air Force, Department of Energy, Verizon, Boston Children’s Hospital, Pixar and Zoom.
The company is also gaining traction among next-generation AI cloud providers like CoreWeave, Lambda and Core42 (formerly G42 Cloud). These partnerships aim to reimagine cloud infrastructure specifically optimized for AI and machine learning workloads.
Simplifying Data for the AI Era
Behind VAST Data’s momentum is its multipurpose platform for storing, processing, and analyzing both structured and unstructured data. The system uniquely brings together high-performance storage, database functionality, and container orchestration - elements that usually require separate infrastructure tools.
Industry Partners Accelerate Adoption
VAST Data continues to collaborate closely with partners like NVIDIA to make AI infrastructure easier to deploy and manage. A recently announced partnership with HPE, for example, helps joint customers process huge volumes of unstructured data for faster insights.
The vote of confidence from lead investor Fidelity and other backers signals strong market validation of VAST Data’s strategy. NEA Chairman and CEO Scott Sandell called the company “a pioneer in the AI GPU space” that’s poised to drive major innovation as AI permeates business and society.
Final Thoughts
With data generation exploding and AI workloads becoming more demanding, the kind of flexible but high-performance infrastructure VAST Data provides is imperative. The company’s latest funding round proves that its vision for a unified AI data platform resonates in a market with nearly limitless potential.
As VAST Data builds on its early success in coming years, expect to see more enterprises leverage its technology to connect data and AI for transformative innovation. The startup may well cement itself as the next great platform company in enterprise infrastructure.