Hammerspace – a company orchestrating the Next Data Cycle for enterprises – announced $56.7 million in funding in its first round of institutional investment. The funding round was led by Prosperity7 Ventures and it included participation from Pier 88 Ventures, ARK Invest, and others. The company launched in 2018 with the vision of making all enterprise data globally accessible, valuable, and indispensable, sparking the next level of business innovations.
Data has been widely considered among the world’s most valuable resources for some time. But only 10% of enterprise data (structured data) can be quickly processed and analyzed for the benefit of the business. The remaining 90% of data is unstructured and much more challenging due to its sheer volume and the complexity of moving it from the storage silo where it was initially created to where it can be easily accessed and used. The fact that most data is not organized in a pre-defined manner makes it difficult for enterprises to understand what they have, but more importantly, to find and extract the value held within their digital assets.
Hammerspace’s Data Orchestration System essentially makes unstructured data a global resource, so teams can access, activate and monetize their data without interrupting user access. It enables organizations to dynamically orchestrate their data across multiple vendors and operators without creating unnecessary data silos.
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technology is becoming increasingly prevalent in enterprises and public sector organizations. By using these technologies to analyze large amounts of unstructured data, businesses can transform their operations and gain an advantage in the Next Data Cycle. AI is now a top priority for companies of all sizes and industries, including mid-sized businesses that are incorporating it into their digital transformation strategies.
This funding round will support technology expansion and customer service, enabling Hammerspace to expand its team of skilled professionals dedicated to helping customers utilize unstructured data. And an expanded Hammerspace team will support more customers with the full capability and transparency to activate, access, and monetize their unstructured data.
This is Hammerspace’s first round of institutional funding and its growth trajectory mirrors that of a relatively mature company. Working with existing customers like Blue Origin, The National Science Foundation, and Royal Caribbean Group, Hammerspace is well-positioned to lead the unstructured data orchestration industry.
KEY QUOTES:
“Hammerspace is uniquely positioned to accelerate the Next Data Cycle for enterprises through unstructured data orchestration. The last data cycle focused on structured data rooted in business intelligence, but this data cycle, driven by compute, orchestration, and applications, leverages unstructured data to drive product innovation and business opportunity with AI, machine learning, and analytics. Hammerspace’s new funding will enable the company to help more customers unlock the value in unstructured data, create new revenue streams and drive operational efficiency.”
– David Flynn, CEO of Hammerspace
“It’s now axiomatic that data is powering the modern economy, and the demand for more data will only increase exponentially. Driven by AI advancements, robust tools now exist to analyze data and tease out actionable insights. However, file storage infrastructure has not kept pace with these advancements. Hammerspace’s breakthrough technology enables businesses to efficiently access unstructured data, moving us closer to what the cloud was always intended to be – unified, seamless access to data, irrespective of geography, without silos, unacceptable latency or infrastructure limitations. Our investment in Hammerspace maps back to our commitment to supporting entrepreneurs who are developing next-generation technologies with the potential to create category-defining companies with global reach and scale.”
– Jonathan Tower, managing director at Prosperity7 Ventures
“The industry has long been focused on the complexity of storing and accessing massive quantities of unstructured data. With the technologies of today and requirements for data, the urgent need in the latest data cycle is the orchestration of a data pipeline of unstructured data to analytics for AI and machine learning applications, enabling speed and agility for enterprises.”
– Senior Strategist Randy Kerns of Futurum Group
“The information of our world increasingly is decentralized. Companies, now more than ever, need to access and move unstructured data out of silos and across platforms, making it more useful and valuable. Our mission is to capitalize on technological convergence across markets and industries that is changing the way the world works. Hammerspace aligns with this mission, unlocking new innovations across the enterprise.”
– Cathie Wood, Founder, CEO, and CIO of ARK Invest
“Our target investments include established companies with effectual businesses that solve real pain points for businesses. Hammerspace’s technology is being utilized as a strategic business differentiator for many of the world’s largest organizations to derive data-driven insights, accelerate product development, and create new business initiatives.”
– Mitch McCullough, Partner at Pier 88 Ventures
“Hammerspace’s unique, hardware-agnostic approach allowing corporations to manage ever-increasing data through the Global Data Environment sets it apart in the industry. We are incredibly fortunate and happy to have been able to support Hammerspace over the past few years and through this capital raise, as it has continuously upgraded its offering and increased awareness of its capabilities, and we look forward to continuing our support as David Flynn and the team fulfill their potential of transforming how corporations create and manage their data.”
– Eric Howe, Sky Family Office
