Scale Computing raises $9M to sell enterprise storage

Scale Computing, which sells storage solutions to small and medium businesses, has raised $9 million in a second round led by Benchmark Capital. Scale’s earlier investors, including Blue Chip Venture Company, CID Equity and Spring Mill Venture Partners also participated in the round.

As the amount of data created grows exponentially every year, companies of all sizes are looking for ways to cheaply store all of it. Scale’s offerings are targeted at smaller enterprises, schools and health care companies, and they provide a way for customers to add storage hardware without suspending services or migrating data.

“We basically provide a system that’s going to grow with a business and be extremely flexible,” says CEO Jeff Ready.

The Indianapolis, Ind.-based company is filled with storage veterans; this is the third venture-backed startup for Ready. He previously sold a Sequoia Capital-backed anti-spam company called Corvigo Inc. to Tumbleweed Communications Inc. for $41.5 million in 2004.

“This is a repeat team. It’s a huge benefit to get someone who’s been there and done that,” says Bill Gurley, a general partner at Benchmark, who joins Scale’s board. “They’re also attacking a big market by delivering full-featured storage solutions at an entry-level price.”

This is Gurley’s second storage investment, after Avamar, which EMC bought for $165 million in 2006.