NAS Startup Avere Gets $15 Million In VC Funding

Storage startup Avere Systems, founded in January 2008 by former executives of Spinnaker Networks and NetApp, has secured $15 million in Series A venture funding in preparation for the launch of its NAS products this fall.

Pittsburgh-based Avere declined to discuss details about the funding. However, in an e-mailed response to questions from ChannelWeb.com, Avere wrote that it plans to enter the NAS market with products that use a variety of storage media and that cost less than existing storage products.

Many of the company’s top management team are former executives of Spinnaker Networks and/or NetApp.

Spinnaker, a developer of grid-based storage technology, was acquired by NAS storage vendor NetApp in 2004 for $300 million.

However, NetApp required several years to integrate the Spinnaker technology into its Data ONTAP storage operating system, and unveiled the new combined operating system only last month.

Avere’s founder and CEO, Ron Bianchini, was most recently the senior vice president of scalable systems at NetApp and, prior to the Spinnaker acquisition, was CEO of that company. Avere’s CTO, Michael Kazar; Vice President of Engineering Daniel Nydick; and CFO John Dean are also former Spinnaker alumni.

Both Menlo Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners were also investors in Spinnaker.

- By Joseph F. Kovar | CRN

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