Excl: Cloud-based data backup startup Vaultize raises series A from Tata Capital Innovations Fund

Cloud-based enterprise file sharing and sync (EFSS) and mobility vendor Vaultize, run by Pune's Anoosmar Technologies Pvt Ltd, has raised an undisclosed amount in a Series A round from Tata Capital Innovations Fund. This is the first institutional round of funding for the startup. Mohan Harshey and Vineet Chadha from Tata Capital—the financial services arm of the $100-billion Tata Group—will now join the board of Vaultize.

Tata Capital Innovations Fund was established in July 2010 and aims to invest $4–10 million in early and growth stage companies having revenues of less than $20 million. It largely targets firms with technology led innovations across IT/ITeS and clean tech sectors. It is one of the alternative investment fund vehicles of Tata Capital.

Vaultize provides a secure enterprise-grade platform for file sharing, endpoint protection through backup and encryption, Google Apps backup and enterprise mobility. It provides various deployment options including public cloud hosted on Rackspace, enterprise-grade appliance and private cloud.

It was founded by Anand Kekre and Ankur Panchbudhe in 2010 and was in stealth mode till September 2011. Both the founders have a host of patents under their belt. While Kekre has around 53 patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Panchbudhe owns over 20 patents in the US and Europe in the field of data protection, security, disaster recovery and storage virtualisation.

The founder duo has worked together in various organisations, including McAfee, Reconnex Corporation, Symantec and Veritas Software.

Kekre, co-founder and CEO of Vaultize told Techcircle.in/VCCircle that the capital raised will be used for geographical expansion and building functional teams. He said the firm is looking at expanding its team for R&D and marketing. "We want to diversify geographically and are opening up US and UK offices soon," said Kekre.

As of now, Vaultize offers its services in the US, India, Australia and the Middle East through channel partners.

Last year, the startup had launched a backup solution for Google Apps data to help its enterprise and business customers. Though competition is rife for a data backup service, Vaultize claims to be the first single, integrated solution offering customised data backup options.

The startup offers solutions for enterprise-level companies as well as SMEs and SMBs. In terms of pricing, the company charges 10 cents per gigabyte (GB) per month ($1.2 per year) on the amount of storage consumed in cloud. Depending on what plans businesses subscribe to, the startup charges from $3 to $7 per month per user. Its server is hosted in the US.

Kekre declined to share any more details on how the company has grown in terms of clients since inception but said it is bullish on geographical expansion.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)