CTERA Networks Secures $80M Investment to Enhance AI-Driven Hybrid Cloud Data Management

Hybrid cloud data management startup CTERA Networks targets AI workloads after raising $80M - SiliconANGLE

Hybrid cloud data management startup CTERA Networks targets AI workloads after raising $80M Hybrid cloud data management startup CTERA Networks Ltd. said today it's aiming to expand its presence in the "data intelligence" business after closing on an $80 million funding round. Today's investment was led by PSG Equity, whose managing director Ronen Nir is joining its board of directors, alongside representatives from existing investors such as Benchmark, Bessemer Venture Partners and Red Doc Capital partners. The company has emerged as a leading player in the cloud data management industry, and claims to set new standards for unstructured data, which is becoming vitally important to enterprises pursuing artificial intelligence projects. Israel-based CTERA sells a cloud-based information technology-as-a-service platform for storing, syncing, sharing, protecting and governing data across cloud endpoints, remote offices and servers. Its products are based on a global file system that sits atop of cloud-based storage systems in order to provide unified access to the data within, regardless of the location its stored. According to the company, its system allows businesses to adapt rapidly by creating customizable storage infrastructure that can deliver data to wherever it is needed by employees, enabling enhanced collaboration. Some of the benefits of its approach include local de-duplication, and the ability to consolidate file services and applications within a single gateway that synchronizes with the cloud. Besides providing unfettered access to data, CTERA offers tools to protect and regulate that information. For instance, its CTERA Ransom Protect offering uses advanced machine learning algorithms to swiftly identify and block suspicious file activities, with administrators able to monitor attacks in real time via its integrated incident management dashboard. The startup also leverages immutable write once, read many storage to help businesses stay compliant with national and industry-specific regulations such as Europe's General Data Protection Regulation. The company argues that its hybrid cloud file storage platform is especially useful in terms of providing secure access to unstructured data across on-premises, edge and public cloud platforms. Unstructured data, which accounts for around 80% of the average enterprise's information, is essential for advanced generative AI models and applications, and CTERA's platform helps to ensure it's always accessible to them. It says secure and timely access to corporate data is essential for tasks like AI training and retrieval-augmented generation, which is a technique used to enhance the knowledge of pre-trained generative AI models with corporate data. "This new strategic partnership with PSG will enable us to accelerate our growth, to continue to provide top services to our customers, as well as to expand our offering into the new transformative area of AI," said founder and Chairman Liran Eshel.

Ctera CEO On New $80M Growth Funding, Plans For AI Intelligence In File Services

'You want AI to understand the conditions of the data and to act according to the data they provide. So this creates a big opportunity for connecting existing data platforms into AI systems and serving them with all the permission sets and all that. That's the premise of the data intelligence service that we are developing and about to launch soon, which will connect Ctera into AI platforms,' says Ctera founder and Chairman Liran Eshel. Ctera, a developer of distributed file systems for cloud file storage and enterprise file sharing across millions of devices, Wednesday unveiled a new $80 million growth investment round from private equity firm PSG. That funding, said Liran Eshel, founder and chairman of Ctera, will allow the New York-based storage company to continue to grow and expand its AI data services capabilities with an upcoming technology the company calls Ctera Data Intelligence. The new funding round comes just days after another global file data services technology developer, Nasuni, unveiled a new unspecified funding round that gave the Boston-based company a $1.2 billion valuation. [Related: Storage 100: The Digital Bridge Between The Cloud And On-Premises Worlds] The investments in companies like Ctera and Nasuni come at the right time for the business, Eshel told CRN. "Gartner is covering this specific space they call hybrid cloud file segment and said the adoption rate is expected to triple in the next three years from 20 percent in 2023 to 60 percent," he said. "So it's a prime time for this segment. And that's why you see the financial funds making moves both in the Nasuni case and our case." Continued investment in AI technology is a must for companies like Ctera given the importance of having the right data available, Eshel said. "You want users to use AI to only get answers based on the data that they are allowed to see," he said. "You want AI to understand the conditions of the data and to act according to the data they provide. So this creates a big opportunity for connecting existing data platforms into AI systems and serving them with all the permission sets." AI is also a critical component to ensuring that all that file data is secured properly, he said.

CTERA Announces $80m Growth Investment from PSG Equity

New York, NY, July 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CTERA, a leader in hybrid cloud data management, today announced that it has raised $80 million in primary and secondary funding from PSG Equity, a leading growth equity firm focused on software and technology-enabled services companies. As part of the transaction, Ronen Nir, Managing Director at PSG, has joined CTERA's board of directors alongside existing shareholders Benchmark, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Red Dot Capital Partners. CTERA, named the top Leader and Outperformer in the GigaOm Distributed Cloud File Storage Radar for three consecutive years, combines an edge-accelerated global file system across public and private cloud environments with AI-based ransomware protection and data intelligence services. CTERA is at the core of hybrid cloud initiatives at some of the world's largest banks, healthcare organizations, global media groups, and government agencies, in deployments that scale to tens of petabytes. Unstructured data is a critical component of any enterprise storage strategy, representing about 80% of organizational data distributed across branch offices, endpoints, on-premises, and cloud data centers. Within this space, hybrid cloud file storage is one of the fastest-growing segments, with adoption rates expected to triple from 20% in 2023 to 60% in 2027 according to Gartner1. The proliferation of AI technology helps make unstructured data management more crucial than ever before, as data access is needed not only for users and applications but also for AI workflows. The new enterprise AI platforms depend on timely access to corporate data for training models and for augmented data retrieval to ensure relevance and accuracy. "We believe CTERA is setting the standard for the modern hybrid data platform, with military-certified security and unparalleled performance," said Liran Eshel, Founder and Chairman of the Board of CTERA. "The strategic partnership with PSG will enable us to further drive our expansion while delivering top service to our customers, and implement our vision for AI data services." "This investment is evidence of CTERA's robust business model and the opportunity it represents," said Ronen Nir, Managing Director, PSG. "We are excited to partner with CTERA as they embark on capturing, what we believe will be an inflection point in the hybrid cloud data market, leveraging both organic and inorganic opportunities to strengthen CTERA's position and deliver even greater value to its customers." 1 Source: Gartner, Top Trends in Enterprise Data Storage 2023, June 2023. # # # CTERA's social media resources include: CTERA Blog: https://www.ctera.com/company/blog/ Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CTERALinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ctera-networks/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CTERA/ About CTERA CTERA is a leading hybrid cloud data platform that provides a cloud-native global file system over public and private object storage, with a rich data services ecosystem that enables enterprises to help gain control of their data for optimal edge performance, data insight, and governance. CTERA is at the core of hybrid cloud transformations of some of the world's largest banks, healthcare organizations, global media groups, and government agencies, in deployments that scale to tens of petabytes. For more information, visit www.ctera.com. About PSG Equity PSG is a growth equity firm that partners with software and technology-enabled services companies to help them navigate transformational growth, capitalize on strategic opportunities and build strong teams. Having backed over 140 companies and facilitated over 500 add-on acquisitions, PSG brings extensive investment experience, deep expertise in software and technology, and a firm commitment to collaborating with management teams. Founded in 2014, PSG operates out of offices in Boston, Kansas City, London, Madrid, Paris and Tel-Aviv. For more information, visit www.psgequity.com/. Attachment CTERA Joanne Hogue Smart Connections PR for CTERA +1 (410) 658-8246 [email protected] Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs