ownCloud Closes $6.3 Million Series A Funding Round

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Round led by Devonshire Investors and existing investor General Catalyst Partners, joined by customers and angels

Lexington, MA – March 13, 2014 — /BackupReview.info/ — ownCloud, Inc., the commercial entity behind the popular file sync and share open source project, today announced it has closed a $6.3 million series A funding round, led by Devonshire Investors and existing investor General Catalyst Partners and joined by customers and existing angel investors.

John Raguin, managing director, Devonshire, will join the company’s board where he previously served as a board advisor.

As employees sync, share and store more and more sensitive company data on consumer-grade file sync and share apps, enterprises face significant privacy, governance, regulatory and security exposure. ownCloud offers businesses an enterprise-grade, on-premises file sync and share alternative to protect sensitive corporate data.

“We are very excited about ownCloud’s penetration into the enterprise file sync and share market, both through their robust and growing community, as well as the customers they’ve been attracting,” said Raguin. “This funding will enable them to grow even more quickly in this hot, very critical market.”

“No one else offers on-premises file sync and share that fully integrates with an enterprise’s existing security, governance and identity management tools,” said Larry Bohn, managing director, General Catalyst Partners. “ownCloud gives businesses the choice of on-site, cloud or hybrid storage, all accessible through simple tools their employees will actually use.”

ownCloud will use the funds to expand marketing, sales and development efforts in the US and Europe.

“Getting this funding from Devonshire and General Catalyst is validation that we are solving a real problem,” said Markus Rex, CEO, ownCloud. “With all the concerns about data privacy and security, and the continuing proliferation of BYOD (bring your own device) in companies, it is critical for companies to get back control of their sensitive corporate data, they can do that with ownCloud.”

With more than a million users worldwide, ownCloud offers the ease-of-use, flexibility, sophistication and security unmatched by consumer-grade syncing apps with third-party storage. ownCloud installs easily on a web server, enabling users to host their own file sync and share and leverage their own storage (or third-party storage they choose), instead of relying on 3rd parties outside of their control.

About Devonshire Investors
Devonshire Investors is the private investment firm affiliated with FMR LLC, the parent company of Fidelity Investments. Managing investments on behalf of FMR outside of Fidelity’s core financial services business, Devonshire has a long track record in the venture capital and private equity industries. Its venture capital teams including Fidelity Biosciences and Fidelity Growth Partners in Europe, Asia and India have invested in companies such as Alibaba, Curam (IBM), GoodData, NetMagic (NTT), Cloudant, Neo4J, Eris Exchange, Liazon (Towers Watson), and Ironwood (NASDAQ: IRWD).

About General Catalyst Partners
General Catalyst Partners is a venture capital firm that makes early-stage and growth equity investments. The firm backs exceptional entrepreneurs who are building innovative technology companies that transform industries, including KAYAK, Demandware, Stripe, Airbnb, The Honest Company, Warby Parker, Datalogix, BigCommerce, Snapchat, HubSpot, and Datto. The General Catalyst partnership leverages its broad experience to help founders build market-leading businesses. General Catalyst has offices in Cambridge, MA, Palo Alto, CA and New York City.

For more information, visit: www.generalcatalyst.com or www.twitter.com/gcvp

About ownCloud Inc.
Based on the popular ownCloud open source file sync and share community project, ownCloud Inc. was founded in 2011 to give corporate IT greater control of their data — combining greater flexibility, openness and extensibility with on premise servers and storage. Company headquarters are in Lexington, MA, with European headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany.

For more information, visit: https://www.owncloud.com

Media Contact:
Joseph Eckert, ownCloud
Katja Gagen, General Catalyst Partners,
Phone: 415 690 6689,
email: kgagen@generalcatalyst.com

Source: ownCloud

Tags: ownCloud