Cohesity Inc., a startup that makes software for managing and backing up enterprise data, today announced that it has closed a $250 million funding round at a $2.5 billion valuation.

The investment comes after Cohesity logged a 150% jump in recurring revenue during the first half of its 2020 fiscal year. In the same period, the startup claims to have seen the number of organizations using its data management software double.

Cohesity’s flagship product, DataPlaform, allows administrators to manage information across their companies’ different systems via a single interface instead of having to use separate tools for each environment. The startup places a particular focus on managing so-called secondary data such as document archives. Administrators can use DataPlatform to compress files, apply encryption, create copies of records and perform other essential tasks.

Cohesity also has a stable of complementary products that provide more specialized features. DataProtect helps companies back up their records, Helios uses machine learning to flag issues such as security breaches and Imanis Data, a product that Cohesity obtained through a 2019 strategic acquisition, protects information inside NoSQL and Hadoop deployments. 

The startup has built out this broad feature set as part of a strategy to court large organizations with complex data management requirements.

“Our big customers are dealing with multiple clouds and data centers, and they have dedicated people trying to move data and applications between them,” Cohesity Chief Executive Officer Mohit Aron explained in an interview on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE studio last year (below). “That’s the problem that Cohesity can actually solve very well because we are building a platform that spans all this.”

Schneider Electric SE, NASA and Brown University are among the big organizations that the startup has signed up as customers. Cohesity said that it will use today’s funding to broaden its product capabilities as well as to build out stronger relationships with partners.

Two partners in particular have become an especially important part of Cohesity’s go-to-market strategy: Cisco Systems Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. The companies, which sell the startup’s software together with some of their data center hardware products, contributed to the $250 million funding round it announced today via their respective investment arms. 

Nearly two dozen backers took part in Cohesity’s latest capital raise. DFJ Growth, Foundation Capital, Greenspring Associates and Wing Venture Capital were among them as well, with the four jointly leading the round.

“Closing a major funding round during these times of economic uncertainty is testament to the promise that our investors see in Cohesity,” Aron said in a statement. The company has raised more than $650 million in outside capital to date.

Photo: Cohesity