Data Stream Network PubNub Raises $23 Million

By Annie Baker • Apr 13, 2019


Photo: PubNub

San Francisco-based data stream network (DSN) company PubNub announced it has secured $23 million in Series D funding. Including this round, PubNub raised a total of $70 million. New strategic investor Hewlett Packard Enterprise and existing investor Relay Ventures were involved in this round. In conjunction with this round, Sapphire Ventures president and managing director Jai Das is joining PubNub’s board of directors.

Today’s apps are delivering connected shared experiences including live chatting, ride sharing, delivery, enterprise collaboration, and social gaming. And PubNub’s real-time messaging and edge computing platform is used by thousands of companies to power these products. And PubNub has a mission to connect every device in the world and deliver large scale real-time experiences on mobile devices, the web, and Internet of Things devices.

“Connected shared experiences are at the heart of the world’s most exciting transformations, changing every aspect of people’s lives,” said PubNub CEO and co-founder Todd Greene. “We are thankful for a world-class investment team that continues to share our vision, and are delighted to welcome the strategic thinkers and innovators of HPE into the fold.”

Prior to launching PubNub, Greene used was also the co-founder of Loyalize and Trusted Opinion. And Greene also founded CascadeWorks in 1999 and sold it to Elance in 2003. And PubNub CTO Stephen Blum was previously the lead systems architect at Loyalize. Before that, he was a lead software developer at Microsoft and the founder of LTS Yavo.

This new funding round is going to be used for accelerating the company’s growth internationally and capitalize on growing demand especially in emerging markets.

“Edge computing and real-time technologies will be at the heart of the next wave of technology innovation,” added Vishal Lall, the COO of Aruba — which is a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. “PubNub’s global Data Stream Network has demonstrated extensive accomplishments powering both enterprise and consumer solutions. HPE is thrilled to be investing in PubNub’s fast-growing success, and to accelerate the commercial and industrial applications of PubNub’s realtime platform.”

Last year, PubNub saw rapid growth. For example, the company expanded its executive team and delivered strong revenue growth. And its global infrastructure expanded to deliver over than 1.3 trillion messages monthly. Plus the company’s partnerships with the largest cloud, software, and networking providers further grew PubNub’s reach. Plus PubNub is going to accelerate its growth this year with multiple sales and R&D offices opening throughout Q2 and Q3 this year.