Israeli-founded data storage startup VAST Data triples valuation to $3.7 billion after raising $83M in funding led by Tiger Global

VAST Data, a New York-based storage infrastructure startup announced Tuesday that it has raised $83 million in Series D funding led by investment giant Tiger Global Management. The round, which triples the company’s valuation in one year to $3.7 billion, making it a solid member of the highly coveted unicorn club.

In addition to Tiger, the round also features strong participation from NVIDIA and several other existing investors, and is driven by VAST’s unique combination of rapid customer adoption and positive cash flow. VAST’s backers also include Norwest Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs (GS.N), and Dell Technologies Capital, the venture capital of Dell Technologies, among others.

This is the latest in a series of funding deals that Tiger has led in recent months, amid sky-high demand for fast-growing tech startups. Tiger also recently backed cloud firm Redis Labs and e-commerce platform Kajabi. Squarespace, one of Tiger Global’s portfolio companies which was recently valued at $10 billion in March, is going public through a direct listing later this month.

Founded in 2016 in Israel and is now headquartered in New York, its founders include Jeff Denworth, Renen Hallak, and Shachar Fienblit. VAST Data’s managed storage software unlocks the value of data and modernizes data centers in preparation for the era of AI computing. VAST delivers real-time performance to all data and overcomes the historic cost barriers to building all-flash data centers. VAST’s products aim to “direct an extinction event” for more traditional storage devices like hard drives, according to a blog post on its website.

The valuation comes as VAST recently reported record-breaking results and rapid customer growth throughout its first two years of operation. VAST ended its second year at nearly $100M of annualized software run rate, having quadrupled its software business year over year, while also achieving cash flow positivity. Since its launch in February 2019, VAST has become the fastest-selling infrastructure startup in history.