Egnyte Raises $29.5M for Enterprise Hybrid Cloud File Sharing

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Flush with new funds, Egnyte is eyeing global markets.

The cloud-friendly enterprise file sharing company raised $29.5 million in a Series D round of funding, the company announced. Northgate Capital Group, Seagate Technology and CenturyLink participated in the latest deal, which was backed by past investors, including Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Polaris Partners.

In addition to new U.S. digs, Egnyte CEO and Founder Vineet Jain revealed plans to expand into Europe. “This new funding will help fuel our global expansion plans, which include a move to our new 30,000 square-foot US headquarters, as well as the opening of a UK office early next year,” he said in company remarks.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Egnyte specializes in secure enterprise file sharing and syncing. The company’s platform links public, private and hybrid cloud storage, enabling businesses to provide their workers access to company data on their mobile devices. In a blog post, Jain said that businesses are driving demand for cloud-enabled products that are sensitive to their secure storage requirements.

“A hybrid approach to file sharing where users can access 100 percent of their files behind the firewall AND in the cloud is a strong need for our user base and the industry,” wrote Jain. He added that 60 percent of his company’s customers deploy Egnyte in that manner “on day one.”

To date, the company has attracted over 40,000 customers. Its storage technology handles over “30 Petabytes of data stored across the cloud and 20,000 on-premise storage devices,” boasted the company. Egnyte’s customer roster includes Cracker Barrel, IKEA, Tommy Hilfiger and Home Depot.

“For the past two years, Egnyte’s revenue has doubled year over year,” reported Jain. The company expects a repeat, and then some, when 2013 draws to a close.

The market for enterprise-grade Dropbox alternatives is growing and has attracted some major competition.

EMC snapped up Syncplicity in 2012 to provide businesses with secure file sharing and syncing capabilities. Since the buy, EMC has been busy upgrading the platform to integrate more seamlessly into corporate and mobile workflows.

Earlier this year, NetApp scooped up ionGrid, also from Mountain View, Calif. ionGrid’s software creates a secure container on iOS and Android devices, allowing users to access corporate data without exposing it to other, possibly harmful, apps.

Box, an early business-flavored cloud storage provider, continues to offer highly-secure, encrypted storage for organizations. So far, over 180,000 businesses have used the Box cloud storage platform.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at Datamation. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.