Chicago-based investment firm New World Ventures has just dwarfed its largest ever investment into a startup, sinking a massive $90 million of funding into IO Data Centers.

IO reportedly first asked for a ‘mere’ $75 million, but later had to increase its request in order to comply with its internal investor’s wishes. Somewhat surprisingly, New World Ventures decided that the investment would be well worth the gamble, before smashing its previous investment record of $50 million.

Jon Mauck, CEO of IO, said that the company would put the money to good use, by expanding its research and development program and also increasing its Asia salesforce. Asia is a region where IO has had some considerable success lately, signing a deal with investment banking firm Goldman Sachs that will see it houses its modules at IO data centers in Singapore, as well as the US and the UK.

Last month, Don Duet, of the Technology Division at Goldman Sachs said that:

“Their innovative technology and services will allow Goldman Sachs to scale its data center operations more efficiently, and further advance the firm’s broader commitment to environmental stewardship and reduced carbon footprint.”

Mauck emphasized the point that IO provided a green solution for business enterprises, but was also keen to stress that what they offered was a huge opportunity too.

“We have something that is fairly unique and we’re addressing the infrastructure portion of the IT stack.”

IO is offering something quite different – whereas before, many enterprises have relied on massively overbuilt infrastructure as a safeguard against it going offline, IO instead designs smaller, highly customized, portable storage units packing their own cooling system, which can be located wherever extra storage space is required. In addition, it provides real time feedback and analytics that allows companies to better optimize their infrastructure, by allowing them to improve their utilization of available space.

Mauck also pointed out how competitive IO’s data solution was in light of increased construction prices, which have risen by 900% since 1968. As a result, IO competes alongside companies such as Digital Realty by offering data center hosting services in addition to its physical hardware.

IO has not yet managed to raise a profit, but Mauck insists that the company is on track to do so within the next two years, by which time they should be ready for an IPO.