Data Orchestration Startup Hammerspace Raises $56.7M In First Institutional Funding

The developer of unstructured data orchestration software will use the new capital to continue development of its technology offerings and expand its customer service operations.

Hammerspace has raised $56.7 million in what the unstructured data orchestration software startup said is its first institutional funding.

The funding round, which comes during a time when venture capital has been hard to come by, was led by Prosperity7 Ventures with participation from Pier 88 Ventures, ARK Invest and others, according to the San Mateo, Calif.-based company.

The funding will be used to expand the company’s customer service operations, “allowing Hammerspace to expand its team of skilled professionals dedicated to helping customers utilize unstructured data. An expanded Hammerspace team will support more customers with the full capability and transparency to activate, access and monetize their unstructured data,” according to a company statement.

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Additional funding will also be devoted to supporting the expansion of its technology offerings, Hammerspace said.

Hammerspace develops its namesake Data Orchestration System, software that automates unstructured data orchestration and global file access across any storage system, whether in a data center, the cloud or at the edge. The technology provides users and applications with read and write access to unstructured no matter it resides.

International Data Corp. has estimated that by 2025 90 percent of all business information will be unstructured data. The growing volume of unstructured data includes machine-generated data, images and video, audio files and office documents – creating what Hammerspace calls the “next data cycle” after traditional structured data.

“Hammerspace is uniquely positioned to accelerate the next data cycle for enterprises through unstructured data orchestration,” said Hammerspace CEO David Flynn in a statement. “The last data cycle focused on structured data rooted in business intelligence, but this data cycle, driven by compute, orchestration and applications, leverages unstructured data to drive product innovation and business opportunity with AI, machine learning and analytics.

“Hammerspace’s new funding will enable the company to help more customers unlock the value in unstructured data, create new revenue streams and drive operational efficiency,” Flynn said.

“It’s now axiomatic that data is powering the modern economy, and the demand for more data will only increase exponentially. Driven by AI advancements, robust tools now exist to analyze data and tease out actionable insights. However, file storage infrastructure has not kept pace with these advancements,” said Jonathan Tower, managing director at Prosperity7 Ventures, in a statement.

“Hammerspace’s breakthrough technology enables businesses to efficiently access unstructured data, moving us closer to what the cloud was always intended to be – unified, seamless access to data, irrespective of geography, without silos, unacceptable latency or infrastructure limitations. Our investment in Hammerspace maps back to our commitment to supporting entrepreneurs who are developing next-generation technologies with the potential to create category-defining companies with global reach and scale,” Tower said.