WEKA Raises $135M to Fuel Hypergrowth and Global Expansion

WekaIO (WEKA), the global data platform provider for next-generation workloads, announced today that it raised $135 million in an oversubscribed Series D funding round led by Generation Investment Management. Several notable new and existing investors also contributed, including 10D, Atreides Management, Celesta Capital, Gemini Ventures, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Hitachi Ventures, Key1 Capital, Lumir Ventures, Micron Ventures, Mirae Asset Capital, MoreTech Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, NVIDIA, Qualcomm Ventures, and Samsung Catalyst Fund. Despite recent volatility and uncertainty in the global financial markets that have widely impacted startup valuations and investments, the company also doubled its previous valuation in the round.

The new funding will enable the company’s continued investment in developing the WEKA® Data Platform to expand its features and cloud integrations, support new use cases, and accelerate the delivery of innovative solutions to its customers. It will also allow WEKA to reach profitability, fuel significant global expansion, and rapidly scale its cloud, customer success, sales, marketing, operations, and human resources teams.

“In 2013, WEKA set out with a bold vision to create a fundamentally new approach to managing and storing data that could power the possibilities of the future by eradicating the compromises of the past,” said Liran Zvibel, co-founder and CEO of WEKA. “This funding round represents a tremendous milestone in realizing that vision, and we are grateful to our new and existing investors for their support. The new capital will allow us to invest in our product and go to market, maintain hypergrowth, and gives us the runway we need to become a profitable, independent company.”

Generation’s investment in WEKA is part of its Sustainable Solutions Fund IV, which conducts deep research into innovative ‘green data’ companies that are helping to address the rapid increases in energy consumption associated with the exponential growth of data and modern data management environments. Today, the world’s data centers are responsible for roughly two percent of its total energy consumption – equivalent to the energy use of the entire continent of Australia. By 2030, without intervention, they may account for eight percent or more, as next-generation workloads like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and high-performance computing (HPC) increase energy and resource demands.

“AI and machine learning applications fuel sustainable advancements like autonomous cars and intelligent manufacturing. However, these workloads demand massive volumes of data and computing power. Today, much of that power is wasted, sitting idle due to bottlenecks in the data pipeline,” said Dave Easton, a Growth Equity Partner at Generation Investment Management. “We believe WEKA is a leader in the growing green data movement, helping some of the world’s best companies drastically improve their performance while providing the potential to avoid millions of tons of carbon. The WEKA Data Platform enables 10-100x performance gains for AI/ML workloads so customers can get the most out of their data, whether operating on-premises, in the cloud, or hybrid and multicloud configurations.”

WEKA’s Series D capital raise comes hot on the heels of an unprecedented time of growth, gains, and expansion for the company. Last month, WEKA was recognized as a Visionary for a second year in the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Distributed Files Systems and Object Storage. In September, it closed a record third quarter that exceeded its entire fiscal year 2021, achieving:

• 255 percent net dollar retention (NDR) while maintaining a zero-churn business
• 250 percent attainment against its Q3 financial plan
• 635 percent total contract value (TCV) growth
• 232 percent annualized run rate (ARR) growth
• 43 percent of Q3 customer transactions were deployed in the cloud
• Significant expansion into the Asia Pacific region and beyond

“The volume and diversity of investors joining WEKA’s Series D round are impressive for a reason. The need to unleash the potential of next-generation workloads has never been greater,” said Jonathan Martin, president at WEKA. “WEKA is winning the trust of leading global enterprises and research organizations because our platform can solve their data challenges without trade-offs and be an impact accelerator for their creativity and vision.”

Atreides Management
“As a long-time believer in the transformational power of artificial intelligence and the associated evolution from data storage to data pipelines, I am truly excited to be investing in WEKA. The reason is simple: any data science or AI application powered by GPUs can run 10-100 times faster, more sustainably, and more cost-effectively with the WEKA Data Platform. I wish I could divulge the identity of their largest customer, but in lieu, I will say that WEKA is helping to power one of the largest – and fastest-growing - production AI deployments in the world today. It is super impressive.” – Gavin Baker, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer at Atreides Management. 

Lumir Ventures
“We believe WEKA is uniquely positioned to support a significant transformation in the market for data-intensive applications using machine learning and AI. The WEKA platform delivers unparalleled computing performance while reducing energy consumption and facilitating innovation in several critical categories, including autonomous driving, essential healthcare applications, and more. Lumir is proud to support Liran, Amit, Omri, Maor, and the rest of the WEKA team on its journey. It's rare to see a team lead a paradigm shift with such humility.” – Alex Dikman, Managing Partner at Lumir Ventures

Hewlett Packard Pathfinder
“WEKA helps HPE customers build agile and scalable solutions across a variety of use cases, including AI, high-performance computing, and life sciences. We’re thrilled to participate in WEKA’s Series D funding as the company looks to grow its operations and team and continue to deliver innovative solutions to customers.”
– Paul Glaser, Vice President and Head of Hewlett Packard Pathfinder

Generation Investment Management LLP is dedicated to long-term investing, integrated sustainability research, and client alignment. It is an independent, private, owner-managed partnership established in 2004 and headquartered in London, with a US presence in San Francisco, with more than $27 billion of assets under management (as of 30 September 2022). Generation Investment Management LLP is authorized and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority. In the U.S., Generation operates via Generation Investment Management US LLP, a Registered Investment Adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For further information, please visit www.generationim.com.