These Are The Stellar Storage Startups To Know In 2023

Data volumes are exploding even as data assets become more valuable. As part of CRN’s Stellar Startups for 2023, here are five storage technology startups, founded in 2017 or later, that solution providers should be aware of.

The New Generation Of Storage Vendors

As data volumes continue to explode the global “datasphere”—the total amount of data created, captured, replicated and consumed—is growing at more than 20 percent a year and is forecast to reach approximately 291 zettabytes in 2027, according to market researcher IDC.

Many businesses are deriving huge value from all the data they generate and collect: analyzing it to gain insight about markets and customers, using it to fuel digital transformation initiatives, and even packaging it to create new data products and data-intensive services.

But to do so businesses must effectively store all that data so that it’s secure and easily accessible when needed. In some cases that means maintaining on-premises data storage systems and for others it means shifting data storage to the cloud. Or both.

All this means that data storage technologies (including backup and disaster recovery) present a major opportunity for solution providers. As part of CRN’s Stellar Startups for 2023, here are five storage technology startups, founded in 2017 or later, that solution providers should be aware of.

Alcion

Founded: 2022

Top Executive: Niraj Tolia, Co-Founder, CEO

Alcion provides AI-driven Backup-as-a-Service for Microsoft 365 applications to protect data from ransomware, malware, accidents and outages.

The company announced general availability of its service in September 2023 along with a $21 million Series A funding round.

Website: https://www.alcion.ai/

HYCU

Founded: 2018

Top Executive: Simon Taylor, Founder, CEO

HYCU brings true SaaS-based, data backup and recovery to on-premises, multi-cloud and SaaS environments. The company’s services provide data protection, migration, disaster recovery and ransomware protection to thousands of companies worldwide, eliminating complexity, risk and high costs.

HYCU raised $53 million in a Series B round of funding in June 2022 that brought its total funding to $140 million.

Website: https://www.hycu.com/

Object First

Founded: 2021

Top Executive: David Bennett, CEO

Ransomware-proof and immutable out-of-the-box, Object First’s Ootbi backup storage appliance delivers secure, simple and powerful backup storage for Veeam customers. The appliance can be racked, stacked and powered in 15 minutes. Ootbi, which launched in February, is built on immutable object storage technology designed and optimized for superior backup and recovery performance.

Object First was started by Veeam founders Ratmir Timashev and Andrei Baronov.

Website: https://objectfirst.com/

Pliops

Founded: 2017

Top Executive: Ido Bukspan, CEO

Pliops develops innovative technology that’s focused on making data centers run faster and more efficiently. The company’s Extreme Data Processor (XDP) radically simplifies the way data is processed and flash storage is managed. Pliops overcomes storage inefficiencies to massively accelerate performance and dramatically reduce overall infrastructure costs for data-hungry applications.

Bukspan, who previously worked as senior vice president of chip design at Nvidia, was named CEO of Pliops in June.

Pliops secured $100 million in Series D funding in August 2022.

Website: https://pliops.com/

Wasabi Technologies

Founded: 2017

Top Executive: David Friend, Co-Founder, President, CEO

Wasabi’s next-generation cloud storage architecture has been changing the cloud storage landscape since its 2017 launch. The company describes its Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage as a disruptively simple, one-size-fits-all cloud storage technology that is less expensive and faster than the competition with no egress fees, API call charges or additional hidden fees.

Wasabi completed a $140 million Series D funding round in December 2022, including $125 million raised in September and an additional $15 million in additional equity investment raised in December from Azura, SiS Cloud Global Tech Fund 8 and a number of existing investors.

Website: https://wasabi.com/