NDRC spin-out NVMdurance raises €250,000 in seed round

17 Sep 2013

NVMdurance, a NDRC spin-out firm that has won a global accolade for its technology that enables solid state disks to last 10 times longer, has raised €250,000 in a seed fund round.

The investment is being led by US venture capital firm New Venture Partners. NDRC, which previously invested in NVMdurance, is also co-investing in this latest round.

Two weeks ago in Santa Clara, California, at Flash Memory Summit, the annual get-together for the solid-state-storage industry, NVMdurance for the first time demonstrated actual results from its software and as a result won the Most Innovative Technology award.

“This award and the backing of a major venture firm are milestones for NVMdurance and will aid us as we grow our business and act as supplier to the storage firms we are targeting and with whom we are currently running technical trials,” said Pearse Coyle, CEO of NVMdurance.

“The company is now embarking on a series of customer trials with a view to our software being used on solid state disks from one or more of the major manufacturers in mid-2014.

“As part of our growth plans we are commencing the raising of a larger round of funding to support the commercial roll out of the technology,” he added.

Novel science

NDRC director Dan Crowley congratulated NVMdurance on its fundraising. “NDRC looks for novel science and technology, substantial market opportunity, great entrepreneurial talent, and deep international connectivity with capital and customers.

“NVMdurance has all of these elements in abundance and now has a tremendous opportunity to become a global leader in flash memory optimisation.

“We are very pleased to make our first investment in Ireland and can confidently say that, through our work with CorporateSpinouts.com, we have sight of a good pipeline of potential investments in spin-outs from the many world-class research organisations that are operating here,” added Steve Socolof, managing partner of New Venture Partners.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com