SEPATON, Inc., the emerging leader in high-performance data protection appliances, today announced that it has secured an additional $23.5 million in Series D equity financing.  It is led by top-tier investor Menlo Ventures, and also includes new investor Valhalla Partners and existing investor Jerusalem Ventures Partners (JVP).   Pravin Vazirani of Menlo Ventures and Hooks Johnston of Valhalla Partners have joined SEPATON’s board of directors.  

“Despite increased investment in storage infrastructure, completing business-critical backups in a timely fashion continues to be a major problem for IT departments.  SEPATON provides an elegant, scalable, and easy to deploy solution to address the issue of reducing backup windows,” said Pravin Vazirani, Menlo Ventures.  “We looked at a number of companies in the backup and recovery space and concluded that SEPATON had the right architecture to deliver immediate value to its customers, while providing increased value over time through applications built on the platform.” 

Adam Fisher of JVP said, “We are impressed by the progress SEPATON has made in a short period of time.  Our continued support of the company reflects our confidence in the size of the market opportunity for disk-based systems that emulate tape libraries, SEPATON’s unique file system approach, and the high-quality of SEPATON’s management team.”

According to Hooks Johnston, general partner with Valhalla Partners, “SEPATON’s early success in bringing its first solution to market with an impressive backup performance and securing revenue-generating customers validates the need for its technology and confirms that they are driving innovation in one of today’s hottest markets.  We look forward to assisting in its continued growth and success.”

Backup and recovery is still one of the number one issues in the data center today.  In a recent Enterprise Storage Group research study focused on data protection, sixty-six percent of users responded that backups take too long to complete and fifty percent of these users said that recovery takes too long to complete.  In the same survey, the overwhelming majority -- seventy-five percent -- stated they intend to acquire some form of disk-based backup technology over the next two years. 

The new funding will enable SEPATON to address these needs by expanding its sales and marketing organization, enhancing support to its channel partners to grow its distribution, and to continue to innovate through product development.

“We are very pleased that Menlo Ventures chose to lead our next round of funding,” said Mike Worhach, president and CEO of SEPATON.  “Their decision to lead our round, coupled by the support of Valhalla Partners and JVP is a testament to the success we have had to date executing our strategy, solidifying our value proposition, and achieving customer traction.  The storage industry clearly recognizes the need for new, reliable and high-performance systems that ease the backup and recovery process.  This new round of funding will help SEPATON achieve its goal of solving this critical problem for enterprise IT.”

About SEPATON, Inc.

Based in Southborough, MA, SEPATON, Inc. develops and markets a family of data protection solutions to medium and large data centers that must manage multiple terabytes of data daily. SEPATON’s data protection solutions integrate seamlessly into existing customer environments. The company is privately held with investments from Jerusalem Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, and Valhalla Partners.  For more information, visit www.sepaton.com.

About Menlo Ventures

Menlo Ventures is a dedicated team of investment professionals with a broad range of experience in technology, marketing, sales and general management. Since 1976, Menlo Ventures has helped visionary leaders turn technical innovations into world-class companies. Many of these companies have become leaders in their respective markets, including LSI Logic, UUNET Technologies, Xros, Cyras Systems, Hotmail Corporation, Ascend Communications and Clarify. Menlo Ventures is currently investing from its ninth venture capital fund which totals $1.5 billion. www.menloventures.com

About JVP

JVP is a leading international venture capital firm focusing on investments in early stage companies in the enterprise software & networking, semiconductors & components & mobile infrastructure sectors. With over $670 million under management, and offices in NY, London, Jerusalem and Tokyo, JVP leverages its international presence, vast expertise and substantial capital base to build companies with the potential to shape and dominate global markets. To learn more about JVP, visit www.jvpvc.com.

About Valhalla Partners

Valhalla Partners is a leading venture capital firm focused on working closely with entrepreneurs to build enduring technology companies.  Valhalla assists entrepreneurs by offering both seasoned advice and best practices which have been developed over the last twenty years.  During that time, the Valhalla team has invested in or served as senior executives in over 100 entrepreneurial companies.   For more information, visit www.valhallapartners.com.

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