Simplyblock, a Berlin-based startup specializing in cloud storage solutions, has announced a successful €2.5M seed funding round. The investment was led by 42CAP, with participation from Antler and Begin Capital, and included high-profile angel investors like Johan Svensson, founder of Neo4j.
The funding will enable Simplyblock to expand its engineering team and advance the product to general availability later this year. The company is currently open for early-access customers running databases on AWS, signaling its readiness to transform cloud storage efficiency for business workloads.
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Revolutionizing Storage Software with Low Latency and High Performance
Founded by Rob Pankow and Michael Schmidt, Simplyblock is developing low-latency, high-performance storage software. This innovative solution is designed to help businesses maximize the efficiency of their cloud storage for critical workloads, databases, and applications by leveraging advancements in SSD drives, specifically NVMe technology.
A New Era of Cloud Storage
Michael Schmidt, co-founder & CTO of Simplyblock, shared insights into the inception of the company, highlighting the cost/performance ratio challenges of Enterprise Storage Systems in the era of ultra-fast NVMe SSDs. Simplyblock’s alternative solution promises more flexibility, scalability, better performance at a lower cost, and reduced carbon emissions compared to traditional systems and services.
Leveraging Advanced Technology for Unmatched Efficiency
Simplyblock’s technology, primarily developed in C/C++, utilizes low-level Linux features to enable millions of IOPS with sub-millisecond latency. This results in software that is 10x faster and offers a 50x better cost-to-performance ratio than legacy enterprise solutions and existing cloud storage options.
Targeting a Wide Range of Database Users
The company is initially targeting database users of all types (SQL, NoSQL, Vector, or Graph) as its first customers. With its first release, Simplyblock will be available for AWS users worldwide, with plans to deploy on AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, and private clouds.
A Team of Experienced Engineers
The german firm boasts a small but highly experienced team of ten engineers, including veterans from NVIDIA, Mellanox, NetApp, Dell EMC, Instana, and Timescale, positioning the company for significant growth in the cloud storage sector.
Investor Confidence in Simplyblock’s Vision
42CAP, a pan-European VC firm, and Begin Capital, a venture capital firm focusing on global pre-seed to Series A investments, expressed their confidence in the company’s potential to lead the next technology wave in cloud storage. Antler, a seed investment firm, praised the founding team’s unique combination of deep technical expertise and operational experience, underscoring Simplyblock’s potential to become a first-of-its-kind cloud storage solution in Europe.
With this seed funding, the startup is poised to redefine cloud storage efficiency, offering businesses a more optimized, cost-effective, and sustainable solution for managing their critical data workloads.
