SandForce Closes $25 Million Series D Funding

SARATOGA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SandForce® Inc., the pioneer of SSD (Solid State Drive) Processors that enable standard NAND Flash deployment in enterprise, client and industrial computing applications, today announced that it has closed $25 million in Series D funding, led by Canaan Partners. Existing investors who also participated include DCM, Storm Ventures, Translink Capital, LSI Corporation & UMC Capital.

“With products that are leading in a hyper-growth market and shipping for revenue to a growing list of top storage drive manufacturers, SandForce represents a strong investment for us.”

“We are increasing volume shipments of our Enterprise and Client SSD Processors to leading drive manufacturers around the globe and continue to receive exceptional market acceptance of our DuraClass™ technology in I/O intensive storage applications,” said Michael Raam, president and CEO of SandForce. “This new funding will help us bring our next-generation products to market, expand our customer and partner support infrastructure, and accelerate our core technology development that will extend our market leadership.”

The patent-pending SandForce DuraClass technology is a set of flash memory management features that enable advanced MLC-based SSDs to deliver world-class reliability, performance, and power efficiency compared to traditional rotating media storage or other SSD solutions. In addition, the SandForce DRAM-less architecture further differentiates the solution from virtually all other controller technologies and enables the industry’s smallest form factors for SSD designs.

“SandForce has break-through SSD Processor technology and has executed extremely well on its business plan,” said Eric Young, general partner at Canaan Partners and new member of the SandForce Board of Directors. “With products that are leading in a hyper-growth market and shipping for revenue to a growing list of top storage drive manufacturers, SandForce represents a strong investment for us.”

About SandForce

SandForce is transforming data storage by pioneering the use of standard flash memory in enterprise, client, and industrial computing applications with its innovative SSD (Solid State Drive) Processors. By delivering unprecedented reliability, performance, and energy efficiency, SSDs based on patent-pending SandForce DuraClass technology unleash the full potential for mass-market adoption of SSDs using NAND flash memory. Founded in 2006, SandForce is funded by leading venture capital investors and first tier storage companies. For more information, visit SandForce at www.sandforce.com.

SandForce and the SandForce logo are registered trademarks, and DuraClass, DuraWrite, RAISE, and the SandForce Driven logo are trademarks of SandForce, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

About Canaan Partners

Canaan Partners invests in visionary entrepreneurs and provides them the networks, insights and operational guidance required to build high-performance companies. Founded in 1987, the firm has raised eight funds and completed more than 78 acquisitions and 53 IPOs. With $3 billion under management and a worldwide footprint, the firm is committed to catalyzing the growth of innovative digital media, communications & mobility and enterprise companies. Among its successes are Associated Content, the people’s media company; VOIP equipment supplier Acme Packet; Copper Mountain, whose technology led the 1990’s DSLwave in North America; DoubleClick, the leading online advertising solution; Kalpana, who pioneered the Ethernet switching industry; Match.com, the most popular online dating site in the world; ONI Systems, the leader in the revolutionary merging of the metro area voice and data communication that is the basis of Ciena’s current offerings; and SuccessFactors, the global leader in on-demand performance and talent management solutions. Canaan maintains a presence in California, Connecticut, India and Israel. For more information visit www.canaan.com.