Incipient, a privately-held provider of storage virtualization software, on Wednesday said it received $15.6 million in funding from its existing VCs and one new unnamed investor.
The cash infusion pushes the six-year-old Waltham, Massachusetts-based firm's total funding past $94 million in a slowly-maturing market segment that is being buffeted by a wave of consolidation.
Storage virtualization, which abstracts stored data from its physical location allowing for more efficient hardware management and consolidation, has been around for about a decade but has taken a back seat to server virtualization, a related technology.
But storage virtualization software startups have recently proven to be quite attractive to larger companies.
Last month NetApp announced its intention to acquire Onaro, a provider of storage virtualization products. In October 2007, Citrix completed its acquisition of Xensource, another storage virtualization product provider; while F5 Networks completed its acquisition of Acopia in September 2007.
"Virtualization is growing in popularity across the board because people are starting to realize it can help them reduce their singular dependence on hardware management," said Theresa Lanowitz, CEO of research firm Voce.
Incipient, which markets its wares to financial institutions, will use its new funds to expand its global sales and marketing efforts.
The firm competes with a mix of rivals including large players such as EMC, IBM, and Hitachi, along with smaller firms such as Ft.Lauderdale, Florida based DataCore and FalconStor of Melville, New York.
Incipient's investors are Globespan Capital Partners, GrandBanks Capital, HLM Venture Partners, Greylock, QuestMark Partners, Sigma Partners, and Wasatch Advisors.