The Blackrock-led funding round valued Qumulo at $1.2 billion.

Qumulo, a startup based in Seattle that helps companies create and manage huge amounts of data, announced the successful raising of $125 million in a Series E round led by funds managed by Blackrock (NYSE: BLK). Other investors that participated were Highland Capital Partners, Madrona Venture Group, Kleiner Perkins and new investor Amity Ventures. (The Seattle Times)

Founded in 2012, the data storage technology company has raised in aggregate $351 million.

Data storage on a massive scale

Qumulo’s client roster includes names such as Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. It also includes energy giant Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) and auto group Hyundai (KRX: 005380).

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has stored huge amounts of data (in perabytes). It relates to consistent COVID-19 projections and data visualizations over the past several months.

The startup is still unprofitable but has now joined the leagues of a handful of Seattle-based unicorns. According to GeekWire, Qumulo’s revenue nearly tripled year-over-year in the most recent quarter.

“We see rapidly increasing demand driven from content creators which span artists creating Hollywood blockbusters, to researchers solving global pandemics, to engineers putting rockets into space,” said Bill Richter, CEO of Qumulo, in a statement. “Qumulo today is trusted to manage more than 150 billion mission-critical files that are at the core of innovation and progress.”

Use of funds

Qumulo will use the funds to expand globally, enter strategic partnerships, and accelerate the innovation of its platform.

“Qumulo’s disruptive model has defined an entirely new category that tackles the formidable challenge of creating and managing digital content at a scale and performance that is only getting bigger,” said Samir Menon, Director in BlackRock Private Equity Partners.

COVID-19

In March, Qumulo offered its cloud-native file software, for free, to public and private sector medical and healthcare research organizations that are working to minimize the spread and impact of the COVID-19 virus.

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