MinIO Makes Multi-Cloud Object Storage Play With $103M Funding Round

‘The number of people we hire, or the money we raise, is not a measure of status. We want to build a viable business. This funding shows we are here to stay. We don’t need this amount of funding. But it shows we have the right business model,’ says Anand Babu Periasamy, MinIO CEO and co-founder.

Multi-cloud object storage developer MinIO Wednesday unveiled the closing of a new $103 million round of funding, giving the company a valuation of $1 billion and making it the latest storage technology unicorn.

While the company, which was incorporated in 2014, is very profitable and doesn’t really need the additional funding, the new round shows it is a business that customers can count on far into the future, said Anand Babu Periasamy (pictured), CEO and co-founder of the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company.

“I care less about our unicorn status, and more about profit,” Periasamy told CRN. “Running a profitable business is never out of fashion. The number of people we hire, or the money we raise, is not a measure of status. We want to build a viable business. This funding shows we are here to stay. We don’t need this amount of funding. But it shows we have the right business model.”

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Customers tell MinIO that its technology is great, Periasamy said. “But they are concerned about whether we’ll be here two to three years later, or whether we’ll get acquired.”

The new series B funding round was led by Intel Capital and included a first-time investment from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 along with investment from previous investors Dell Capital, General Catalyst, and Nexus Ventures. With this round, total funding in MinIO reached $126 million.

Periasamy said an IPO might be possible, but not in the foreseeable future. “We’re not looking to go public,” he said. “That’s a way for investors to cash out. But we’re focused on building a viable business.”

While there are several object storage technology developers, MinIO is unique in that its offering is strictly software-defined storage, Periasamy said.

“Other object storage vendors are hardware-based,” he said. “You need to buy the software and hardware. If you look at pure software plays, most disappear. MinIO gets 1 million Docker pulls every day.”

MinIO went with a pure software-defined storage play because if a hardware platform is required, it can’t be taken to the cloud, Periasamy said.

“Businesses are rapidly moving to the cloud and containers,” he said. “Cloud is becoming a commodity. Once object storage is containerized, you can take it to the cloud and to on-premises.”

MinIO uses multiple channels to reach clients, including direct to customers who swipe their credit cards, as well as via cloud marketplaces, Periasamy said.

“Many customers want to cut the middleman, which they think makes the process sophisticated,” he said. “But they want a digital experience and pay for the technology on a consumption-based model. In the storage industry, you often can’t easily see the pricing. So we are fully transparent.”

However, said Jonathan Symonds, MinIO’s chief marketing officer, the company also works with channel partners via OEM partners such as Seagate, whose LiveCloud object storage-as-a-service is powered by MinIO. The company’s software is also available tightly integrated with other OEM partners Western Digital and Supermicro.

Periasamy said the company also works with North American systems integrators.