GigaSpaces Grabs $3M

Grid startup GigaSpaces has completed a $3 million Series B funding round, which could rise to around $5 million, as it ramps up its U.S. operation.

BRM Capital was the prime mover in the round, although existing investor Formula Vision Technologies (TASE:FVT) has an 18-month option to invest an additional $1.5 million. BRM also has the option to invest another $400,000.

GigaSpaces was founded back in 2000 by Nati Shalom, the head of the Israeli Grid consortium. The company, which has offices in New York and Herzelia, Israel, currently has around 25 employees, of whom seven are based in the U.S.

The company's flagship offering is Enterprise Application Grid (EAG), a software which virtualizes the middleware for database and messaging applications. EAG then allows the middleware to run across grid architectures.

Grid computing, which enables compute, network, and storage resources to be shared right across an organizations IT infrastructure is gaining momentum, with both vendors and governments putting their weight behind the technology (see Sun Grid Gets Thumbs Up and EC Goes for the Grid).The Series B tops the $2.5 million Series A that GigaSpaces completed almost two years ago, and Yaron Benvenisti, the company’s CEO, told NDCF that the money will be used to “scale up” the company’s operations in Europe and the U.S.

This involves expanding the company’s sales operations across America, targeting areas such as New York, Connecticut, Chicago, San Francisco, and the banking industry in North Carolina. The company also expects to more than double its headcount in 2005, he adds.

Benvenisti says the company’s grid message is already getting through to customers, with Hutchison 3G Ltd. already using EAG. One of the world’s leading stock exchanges has also been signed up, according to the exec, although he was unwilling to name names.

It is in the financial services industry where the company appears to be getting most traction. “There are major pilots on the go in some of the major Wall Street brokerage firms,” Benvenisti says.

GigaSpaces is not the only startup focused on grid computing. U.K. vendor Paremus Ltd. announced its plans earlier this year and New York-based rival DataSynapse has been raking in the money (see Paremus Plays Its Hand and D-Day for DataSynapse).On the product side, Benvenisti says GigaSpaces is committed to a major new release of EAG each year. The next update will include more sophisticated management and monitoring capabilities, he assures.

GigaSpaces’ primary target will remain the financial services industry, at least for the immediate future, according to Benvenisti. However, he adds that this is likely to be extended to other areas such as telecom, defense, and transportation.

At the moment, grid computing is seen as a better fit for certain industries. Much of the telecom sector, for example, is a potential grid goldmine, but is still wrestling with the technology (see Telecom Firms Grappling With the Grid).

— James Rogers, Site Editor, Next-Gen Data Center Forum