Atlas Data Storage – a technology company building end-to-end DNA data storage – announced the closing of a $155 million seed financing and the acquisition of technology assets from Twist Bioscience. The seed funding investors are ARCH Venture Partners, Deerfield Management, Bezos Expeditions, Tao Capital Partners, Rsquared VC, Earth Foundry, In-Q-Tel (IQT), and other undisclosed investors.
Atlas is a company focused on commercializing data storage products that utilize synthetic DNA’s unique properties: extremely high data density, 1,000+ year durability, unlimited low-cost copies, and scalability.
The company is spearheading the convergence of synthetic biology and information technology. Atlas’ core technology combines novel semiconductor chips and enzyme engineering, driving a new era of high-throughput and massively parallel chemistry performed on a chip.
What Atlas does: Atlas data center products will equip hyperscaler, enterprise, and government customers to meet the data storage demands of the AI era with low-cost, ultra-high-density, secure, and scalable storage. And DNA data storage will be designed to enable greener data centers with permanent storage that requires no ongoing migration or rewriting, reduced power demands, and minimized carbon impact and e-waste.
Company leadership: The company is headed by an integrated team of data storage industry veterans and DNA and semiconductor technology experts. Varun Mehta will serve as CEO. Mehta is a veteran of several successful startups and founded Nimble Storage, which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2017. Bill Banyai will be CTO, who previously developed DNA sequencing technology at Complete Genomics and DNA synthesis technology at Twist Bioscience. George Kadifa, a tech industry veteran who served in key positions at Hewlett Packard, IBM, Oracle, and Silver Lake, will assume the role of Executive Chairman.
KEY QUOTES:
“The opportunity to create an entirely new storage medium does not arise often. At Atlas Data Storage, we are pioneering the use of DNA for high-capacity storage. DNA enables highly scalable, ultra-dense, secure, permanent data storage, and the potential to reshape storage is tremendous. Atlas has the right team and technology to realize this promise.”
Varun Mehta, CEO of Atlas
“Data is central to the modern economy, and the amount of stored data is growing rapidly. New technologies such as artificial intelligence are further accelerating demand for storage. I’m confident that the data storage technology that Atlas is creating will enable storing billions and billions of terabytes at low cost, power, and waste. Atlas is also driving US leadership in key technology domains, which will have an immense long-term economic and national security impact.”
George Kadifa, Executive Chairman of Atlas
