If you’re looking for an idea to start your next business, SanDisk has a pretty strong incentive to get you thinking about developing Flash memory technology.
That incentive comes in the form of a $75 million venture fund that it will invest in “next-generation solid-state memory technology, enterprise storage, storage technologies managing the vast influx of so-called ‘big data,’ and cloud-based computing technologies.
Whiptail has received $31 million to expand its flash storage arrays distribution.
It’s also announced the first recipient of investment related to its new fund: Whippany, N.J.-based Whiptail. The data storage firm builds faster and energy-efficient flash storage array solutions. It received $31 million to build its engineering team and expand globally. The investment came from SanDesk and an “unnamed Silicon Valley industry titan”, Ignition Partners, RRE Ventures, and Spring Mountain Capital.
Flash storage is becoming a more popular option for data storage over other disc drive options such as SATA or IDE. Most commonly found in USB storage drives or mobile device storage, flash drives or solid state discs are getting larger and being used in laptops and desktops, and even in enterprise-grade storage systems. But while Flash drives provide fast storage, and no risk of being damaged by magnetic interference, they are still costly compared to other the alternatives.
SanDisk has long been a player in the flash storage industry. Now it’s looking for some startup help to improve the technology even more.