Vast Data Secures $118M to Expand AI Workloads Data Storage Platform

Vast Data is, quite literally, raising substantial funds.

Based in New York, this innovative startup specializes in a scale-out, unstructured data storage solution designed to eliminate the inefficiencies of tiered storage systems—those that shuffle data between high- and low-cost hardware. Today, Vast announced it has successfully secured $118 million in a Series E funding round, led by Fidelity Ventures. Other contributors to this round include New Enterprise Associates, BOND Capital, Drive Capital, Nvidia, Dell, Goldman Sachs, Tiger Global, Commonfund, Norwest, 83North, Greenfield, and Next47.

This funding round boosts Vast's valuation to $9.1 billion post-money, increasing its total capital raised to $381 million. "The surge in interest around AI and the urgent need for contemporary infrastructure to support these demands over the past year has significantly benefited Vast's growth and positions us for further enterprise adoption," said Vast's co-founder and CEO Renen Hallak in an email interview. "Given the future-proof nature of Vast’s offerings, data-driven enterprises see us as a vital investment in their growth."

Hallak co-founded Vast in 2016 alongside Jeff Denworth, Shachar Fienblit (who previously held leadership roles at Kaminario and IBM), and Alon Horev (formerly of Cisco and IBM). According to Hallak, the founders shared a vision for creating an advanced data management platform that utilized commodity hardware to provide faster access to large datasets for AI applications.

The founding team then developed a novel storage architecture and software infrastructure, operating in stealth mode until 2019, when they began serving customers. Today, Vast integrates storage, database, and compute engine capabilities into a single platform designed to enable AI and GPU-accelerated workloads across data centers and clouds. Users can manage both unstructured and structured data such as videos, images, text, data streams, and edge device data across their chosen private, public, or hybrid cloud environments.

“Integrating legacy enterprise infrastructure is both time-consuming and challenging, with inherent inefficiencies making it costly,” Hallak noted. “Traditional cloud solutions for AI infrastructure often rely on disparate technologies that fail to leverage modern advancements, leading to suboptimal performance, complicated operations, and unnecessary expenses. Without the right infrastructure, organizations struggle to optimize their investments in AI and deep learning due to inadequate data access.”

While Vast faces competition from vendors like Databricks, Hallak confidently claims a significant first-mover advantage, a claim that appears validated by Vast's impressive financial metrics.

The company’s annual recurring revenue has reached $200 million, and following a recent strategic partnership with HPE, Vast is experiencing growth at 3.3 times the previous year’s rate. Cash flow has remained positive for the last 12 months, and the customer base has expanded to include notable brands like Pixar and Zoom.

With a workforce exceeding 700 employees globally, Vast aims to utilize this new funding to further enhance its market presence, particularly in Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Europe. "As a software company operating on commodity hardware, Vast was largely insulated from the pandemic and supply chain challenges affecting many other businesses,” Hallak stated. “While we have continued to flourish, this fresh investment will further propel Vast’s mission to establish a new category of infrastructure that places data at the core of intelligent systems."