Simplyblock, headquartered in Berlin, has successfully secured €2.5 million in seed funding. The investment round saw participation from 42CAP, a leading pan-European seed stage venture capital firm, Antler, recognized as Europe’s most active early-stage investor, and Begin Capital, an international VC firm based in London. High-profile angel investors, including Johan Svensson, founder of Neo4j, also contributed, showcasing strong confidence in Simplyblock’s potential.
About Simplyblock
Simplyblock is at the forefront of developing low-latency, high-performance cloud storage solutions. It stands out as Europe’s sole startup venturing into a domain predominantly occupied by US and Israeli firms. Leveraging the latest NVMe SSD technology, Simplyblock aims to deliver software that is up to ten times faster and offers a fifty times better cost-to-performance ratio than existing solutions. This technology not only promises significant advancements in data handling but also contributes to reducing carbon emissions from data centers.
Innovative technology for a digital future
The startup’s technology is based on C/C++ to optimize low-level Linux features. It enables millions of operations per second with sub-millisecond latency. This technology addresses the escalating demand for efficient data storage. This is underlined by the fact that annual data volumes are projected to increase by 1,000% by 2030. Simplyblock’s solution is poised to make a substantial impact on the $250 billion data storage market, offering a more affordable, faster, and environmentally friendly alternative.
Founders’ vision and environmental impact
Co-founder and CTO Michael Schmidt highlighted the industry’s need for innovation, stating, “It turned out that Enterprise Data Storage is quite an inert industry… that is how we came up with an alternative, which is more flexible and better scalable, has better performance at much lower cost and reduced carbon emissions than today’s systems and services.” This vision aligns with global calls to reduce data center emissions, underlining Simplyblock’s role in fostering sustainable technology development.
Backing from industry leaders
The funding round’s success reflects the industry’s recognition of the need for optimization in data storage. Moritz Zimmermann, General Partner at 42CAP, remarked on the surprising potential for improvement in what many see as a commoditized area. The founders, Rob Pankow and Michael Schmidt, bring a wealth of experience from their previous roles in major tech companies, supported by a highly skilled team of engineers.
A promising journey ahead
With the seed funding, Simplyblock plans to expand its engineering team and achieve general availability of its product. The support from its investors, coupled with the founders’ expertise, sets a solid foundation for Simplyblock to lead the next wave of technology in cloud storage, marking a significant step towards innovative, efficient, and sustainable data solutions.
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