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VAST Data Closes Series E Funding Round, Nearly Triples Valuation to $9.1 Billion

NO–HEADQUARTERS | NEW YORK, Dec. 06, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — VAST Data, the AI data platform company, announced today that it has secured $118 million in Series E funding, led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and accompanied by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), BOND Capital and Drive Capital.

The funding will advance VAST Data's mission to deliver a new category of infrastructure that puts data at the center of how systems think, react, and discover. This breakthrough will empower organizations to effectively address their most pressing data challenges, enabling unprecedented advancements in technology, economics, social dynamics, and scientific research.

The VAST Data Platform unifies storage, database, and containerized compute engine services into a single, scalable software platform architected from the ground up to power AI and GPU–accelerated tools in modern data centers and clouds. The platform uniquely enables organizations to understand all data, both structured and unstructured as it exists in the natural world, to generate superior insights and unlock new value.

"A new AI data stack is required," said Renen Hallak, CEO and Co–Founder of VAST Data. "To be truly impactful in this era of AI and deep learning, you not only want to have a lot of data, but also high quality data that is correctly organized and available at the right place, at the right time. The VAST Data Platform delivers AI infrastructure that opens the door to automated discovery that can solve some of humanity's most complex challenges."

"We believe that VAST Data is a pioneer in the AI GPU space," said Scott Sandell, Chairman, CEO and CIO at NEA. "With deep learning at the center of the massive AI movement we are experiencing, interest and investment in VAST Data has escalated, and we are thrilled to partner with the VAST Data team as they drive influence and innovation in the global AI technology sector."

The funding follows a pivotal 2023 calendar year, marked by:

  • Impressive Business Momentum: At the end of FY'Q3, VAST Data surpassed $1 billion in cumulative software bookings. The company achieved 3.3x year–over–year (YoY) growth and maintained positive cash flow for the last 12 quarters with a gross margin of nearly 90%.
  • Organizations Across All Industries Trust VAST Data: VAST Data has amassed a growing customer roster of global enterprises including Booking Holdings, Inc., U.S. Air Force, U.S. Department of Energy, Verizon, Boston Children's Hospital, Pixar, and Zoom, among others, signaling strong market validation.
  • Reimagining AI Cloud Infrastructure: Through innovative customer partnerships with companies like CoreWeave, Lambda and Core42 (formerly G42 Cloud), VAST Data is delivering the infrastructure that is purpose built for next–generation AI clouds.
  • Deepened Commitment to Partners: Since its founding, VAST Data has worked closely with partners to break down technology tradeoffs and barriers while improving the overall customer experience. In May 2023, VAST Data furthered this mission with the VAST Data Platform achieving NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD certification, making large scale AI deployments simpler, faster, more reliable and easier to manage. In April 2023, VAST Data entered into a strategic partnership with HPE, helping enterprise customers manage unstructured data with high performance at scale to deliver superior time to data insight.
  • Global Expansion: Now with more than 700 employees worldwide VAST Data is actively broadening its business footprint, penetrating new regions in Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Europe.

Supporting Quotes

The VAST Data Platform's capacity to process large quantities of data at unparalleled scale and speed signifies a transformative shift in industry operations, underscoring the pivotal role of deep learning AI in shaping future advancements. This sentiment was shared by customers and partners across the industry, including:

"Data is every company's most valuable asset," said Manuvir Das, vice president of Enterprise Computing at NVIDIA. "NVIDIA and Vast Data are collaborating to enable enterprises to harness their data using accelerated computing and cloud–based AI solutions to tackle their biggest challenges."

“Some of the most data–intensive and computationally advanced customers on the planet trust CoreWeave, NVIDIA and VAST to deliver the most secure and scalable solutions on top of the industry's fastest and most flexible AI infrastructure,” said Michael Intrator, CEO and co–founder of CoreWeave. “We're honored to partner with VAST to provide purpose–built accelerated computing solutions that solve the complex AI and data challenges that enterprises face now and into the future."

“Data is the only competitive advantage in AI and therefore infrastructure that can simplify and scale data access is crucial for any organization training AI models,” said Sanjeev Mohan, Principal, SanjMo. “With a modern data platform fine–tuned for the performance and scale AI requires, VAST Data is well–positioned to capture a massive opportunity.”

Additional Resources:

About VAST Data:
VAST Data is the data platform company built for the AI era. As the new standard for enterprise AI infrastructure, organizations trust the VAST Data Platform to serve their most data–intensive computing needs. VAST Data empowers enterprises to unlock the full potential of their data by providing AI infrastructure that is simple, scalable, and architected from the ground up to power deep learning and GPU–accelerated data centers and clouds. Launched in 2019, VAST Data is the fastest growing data infrastructure company in history. For more information, please visit https://vastdata.com and follow VAST Data on X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn.

Media Contact:

Austin Weedfall
VAST Data
press@vastdata.com


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International science organizations sign agreement to provide hardware for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment

Batavia, Illinois, Dec. 06, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment "" also known as DUNE "" is an international mega science experiment that will use enormous particle detectors to study the behavior of neutrinos, which might indicate why we live in a matter–dominated universe.

The DUNE collaboration, representing scientists from dozens of countries around the world, will contribute to the construction of detectors at two sites in the United States: one at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the host lab for DUNE, 40 miles west of Chicago, and the other at the Sanford Underground Research Laboratory (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota.

On Nov. 17, representatives of funding agencies from five countries signed a memorandum of understanding, affirming their commitment to contribute to the construction of components for DUNE. Director Lia Merminga signed on behalf of Fermilab.

"DUNE will help answer some of the biggest questions in the universe and has the potential to transform the field of neutrino physics. We are proud to host DUNE in the U.S. with major contributions from the project's international partners who offer their unique expertise," said Regina Rameika, DOE associate director for the Office of High Energy Physics. "Having the commitment from our international partners to contribute these vital components is an essential aspect of DUNE."

With their signatures, University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil, Institut National de Physique Nuclaire et de Physique des Particules (IN2P3), France, Istituto Nazionale Di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Italy, University of Bern, Switzerland, and the Science and Technology Facilities Council/United Kingdom Research and Innovation (STFC/UKRI), United Kingdom, committed to contributing hardware to the two DUNE Far Detectors in South Dakota.

The Canadian Foundation for Innovation John R. Evans Leaders Fund and the Ontario Research Fund in Canada in addition to CERN in Switzerland also signed the memorandum of understanding remotely and will contribute to the DUNE Near Detector in Batavia, Illinois.

Signatures from agencies in the Czech Republic and Spain have been coordinated and will be finalized in the future.

In the memorandum of understanding for Far Detector 1, the United Kingdom and CERN agreed to contribute to anode plane assemblies; Brazil, the Czech Republic, Italy and Spain will contribute to the photon detection system; CERN will contribute to the high–voltage system; Canada, CERN and the U.K. will contribute to the data acquisition system; and Spain will contribute to the calibration and cryogenics instrumentation.

In the memorandum of understanding for Far Detector 2, CERN and France agreed to contribute to top drift electronics; Brazil, the Czech Republic, France, Italy and Spain will contribute to the photon detection system; France and CERN will contribute to the high–voltage system; Canada, CERN and the U.K. will contribute to the data acquisition system; Spain will contribute to the calibration and cryogenics instrumentation; and CERN and France will contribute to the charge readout planes.

Scientists and engineers from more than 35 countries are partnering with Fermilab to design, build and analyze data from DUNE, which will be installed in the new Long–Baseline Neutrino Facility. Construction of LBNF has begun, and the excavation of the large caverns in Lead, South Dakota for the DUNE Far Detectors is more than 85% complete.

The DUNE collaboration comprises more than 1,400 scientists and engineers from over 200 research institutions. Notably, CERN's commitment to LBNF and DUNE represents its first investment in infrastructure for a physics experiment outside of Europe. Several countries "" France, India, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom "" also are making significant contributions to the Proton Improvement Plan II project, which includes the construction of the 215–meter–long superconducting particle accelerator at Fermilab that will power DUNE.

DUNE will be the world's most comprehensive experiment to study neutrinos: tiny, lightweight particles that permeate the universe but rarely interact with anything. DUNE will seek to determine whether neutrinos could be the reason the universe is made of matter; look for neutrinos emitted from exploding stars to learn more about the formation of neutron stars and black holes; and watch for a rare subatomic phenomenon that could elucidate the unification of nature's forces.

To pursue these science goals, DUNE will study neutrino oscillation, a phenomenon in which a neutrino's property, called flavor, changes as it travels. DUNE will probe this oscillation by shooting a beam of neutrinos 1,300 kilometers straight through the earth, from Fermilab's accelerator complex in Illinois, through the Near Detector to the Far Detectors located a mile underground at SURF in South Dakota.

The science of DUNE is a global endeavor, and the partnership with funding agencies, scientists and engineers from around the world makes it the first truly international mega science experiment to be hosted on U.S. soil. Additionally, hundreds of students from all corners of the earth will start their careers in science, engineering and computing on this project.

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.

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