BlueData Announces $20 Million Series C Funding Led by Intel Capital

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwired - Aug 25, 2015) - BlueData, provider of the leading infrastructure software platform for Big Data, today announced an oversubscribed $20 million Series C funding round. Led by Intel Capital, the funding includes additional investment from existing investors Amplify Partners, Atlantic Bridge, and Ignition Partners as well as a new unnamed strategic investor.

Doug Fisher, senior vice president of Intel and general manager of its Software and Services Group, will join BlueData's board of directors. The Intel Capital funding was led by Investment Director Igor Taber.

This new investment is a testament to the demand in the market for a solution that simplifies on-premises Big Data infrastructure. BlueData will use the funding to continue its mission of transforming how enterprises deploy their Big Data applications and infrastructure -- making it easier, faster, and more cost-effective. 

"The value of Big Data is huge, and the interest among enterprises continues to grow," said Fisher. "BlueData's software platform complements Intel's initiatives in Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark, as well as our technology advancements in data center virtualization and container technology on Intel architecture."

According to IDC, the market for Big Data will reach $41.5 billion by 2018, growing at a 26 percent CAGR, six times faster than the overall IT market. As Big Data deployments move beyond early adopters, the complexity of implementing Hadoop and related technologies has become an even more significant problem. The infrastructure used today for most Hadoop and Spark deployments was not purpose-built to handle Big Data workloads or the needs of data scientists. As a result, it is often expensive and time-consuming to implement.

BlueData tames the infrastructure complexity that can slow down and stall Big Data deployments. The BlueData EPIC software platform works with all of the major Hadoop distributions as well as Spark. It integrates with the leading analytical applications, so data scientists can use the tools they prefer. It runs with any shared storage environment, eliminating the need to move data. It delivers the agility of Hadoop-as-a-Service in an on-premises deployment model, with the enterprise-grade security and governance that IT teams require. With BlueData, enterprises can spin up virtual Hadoop or Spark clusters within minutes -- instead of weeks or even months.

"We believe BlueData's technology innovations will transform the Big Data market," said Nick Sturiale, managing partner at Ignition Partners. "Their software takes the heavy lifting out of deploying the applications, data, and infrastructure to run Hadoop, Spark, and other Big Data frameworks. It's a completely new paradigm, resulting in much faster time to insights with Big Data."

BlueData will use the additional investment to double down on its software development and innovation, along with expanding its engineering, sales, business development and marketing teams. BlueData will continue to support the latest versions and distributions in the Hadoop and Spark ecosystem, leveraging its partnerships with vendors such as Cloudera, Databricks, Hortonworks and MapR, as well as with application vendors such as AtScale, Datameer, Platfora, Splunk, Tableau and Trifacta. The company will also extend its support to other Big Data environments over time, building on its mission to become the infrastructure platform for any Big Data technology. This includes taking advantage of the latest virtualization and infrastructure innovations, building upon the company's recently announced support for Docker containers as well as other new infrastructure technologies, to provide the best possible performance, efficiency, and cost savings for its customers.

"We founded BlueData with the goal of transforming the way that companies deploy Big Data infrastructure," said Kumar Sreekanti, co-founder and CEO of BlueData. "We've delivered on that goal and we're now seeing tremendous customer interest in our software solution, providing the benefits of Hadoop-as-a-Service delivered in an on-premises model. This funding will provide us with the means to continue to accelerate that innovation and change the Big Data industry in a revolutionary and disruptive way."

BlueData and Intel also announced a broad strategic technology and business collaboration today, through which the companies will execute on a joint engineering roadmap and joint go-to-market strategies that include coordinated product, channel, and sales programs.

About BlueData Software, Inc.
BlueData is transforming how enterprises deploy their Big Data applications and infrastructure. The BlueData EPIC™ software platform uses virtualization technology to make it easier, faster, and more cost-effective for enterprises of all sizes to leverage Big Data -- enabling Hadoop-as-a-Service in an on-premises deployment model. With BlueData, they can spin up virtual Hadoop or Spark clusters within minutes, providing data scientists with on-demand access to the applications, data and infrastructure they need. Based in Mountain View, California, BlueData was founded by VMware veterans and its investors including Amplify Partners, Atlantic Bridge, Ignition Partners, and Intel Capital. To learn more about BlueData, visit www.bluedata.com or follow @bluedatainc.

About Intel Capital
Intel Capital, Intel's global investment organization, makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software, and services targeting enterprise, mobility, consumer Internet, digital media and semiconductor manufacturing. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested nearly US$11.6 billion in over 1,440 companies in 57 countries. In that timeframe, 213 portfolio companies have gone public on various exchanges around the world and 373 were acquired or participated in a merger. In the first half of 2015, Intel Capital invested $134 million in 63 deals, including 29 new portfolio companies, and saw 10 exits. For more information on what makes Intel Capital one of the world's most powerful venture capital firms, visit www.intelcapital.com or follow @intelcapital.