Capital Chaos

Atrato (Westminster, Colorado) announced that it just raised $18M led by Aweida Venture Partners and just launched.  The company was founded on the idea that it could help people get nearly instantaneous access to the data and content they wanted.  With billions of dollars being invested in R&D for highly dense and scalable systems, little attention has been given to high-performance storage platforms to keep up with the increasing demands of digital content and data on-demand according to Jesse Aweida, general partner of Aweida Venture Partners and founder of StorageTek.

What Atrato has developed is platform that allows its customers high-speed, high volume data access which comes in handy for media companies looking to push out large amounts of content to many people at once.  Sticking these boxes in cable system head-ends will simplify content distribution and support at the same time.  Their “high-density storage system” is integrated with its data acceleration processing to push out more data faster - without any decrease in quality. 

Lets face it, these guys know a thing or two about data storage.  The company is run by Dan McCormick who used to be an exec at Xiotech and Seagate and their advisory board (who also participated in the raise) includes Tom Porter (formerly CTO, Seagate and IBM storage executive), Gary Gentry (SVP Maxtor, Seagate) and Dick Blaschke (IBM and EMC veteran).  While it is a very impressive team leading and overseeing the company, my sense is $18M is only the first of several rounds of funding these guys are going to need if they want to be successful.  Taking on Cisco, StorageTek, EMC etc. isn’t easy and they all have very deep pockets.

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 Aweida Venture Partners (Superior, CO) is an early stage VC primarily focused on data storage, storage and life sciences.  The firm has been around since 1988 and made roughly 14 investments (not a lot given how long they have been in business).  As a $100M fund, these guys are more of a boutique firm that specializes in seeding companies in the areas they feel most comfortable in.  While they do dabble in mezzanine rounds, if you are truly looking to expand your business and will require significant funding in later rounds ($10m +) then you will most likely be working with another firm as well.

Make no mistake, these guys know the storage space like the back of their hands.  Jesse Aweida was the founder of StorageTek so if you get to pitch these guys, make sure you understand not only your business but how it relates to the industry as a whole.  There have been many companies that evolved from former employees of StorageTek and the space is very competitive.

Best bet is to pitch Jesse directly or get his son Dan jazzed up on your idea.

Contact:
500 Discovery Parkway
Suite 300
Superior, Colorado 80027
Telephone: (303) 664-9520