Edge computing startup Pensando comes out of stealth mode with a total of $278 million in funding – TechCrunch

Pensando, an edge computing startup founded by former Cisco engineers, came out of stealth mode today with an announcement that it has raised a $145 million Series C. The companys software and hardware technology, created to give data centers more of the flexibility of cloud computing servers, is being positioned as a competitor to Amazon Web Services Nitro.

The round was led by Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Lightspeed Venture Partners and brings Pensandos total raised so far to $278 million. HPE chief technology officer Mark Potter and Lightspeed Venture partner Barry Eggers will join Pensandos board of directors. The companys chairman is former Cisco CEO John Chambers, who is also one of Pensandos investors through JC2 Ventures.

Pensando was founded in 2017 by Mario Mazzola, Prem Jain, Luca Cafiero and Soni Jiandani, a team of engineers who spearheaded the development of several of Ciscos key technologies, and founded four startups that were acquired by Cisco, including Insieme Networks. (In an interview with Reuters, Pensando chief financial officer Randy Pond, a former Cisco executive vice president, said it isnt clear if Cisco is interested in acquiring the startup, adding our aspirations at this point would be to IPO. But, you know, theres always other possibilities for monetization events.)

The startup claims its edge computing platform performs five to nine times better than AWS Nitro, in terms of productivity and scale. Pensando prepares data center infrastructure for edge computing, better equipping them to handle data from 5G, artificial intelligence and Internet of Things applications. While in stealth mode, Pensando acquired customers including HPE, Goldman Sachs, NetApp and Equinix.

In a press statement, Potter said Todays rapidly transforming, hyper-connected world requires enterprises to operate with even greater flexibility and choices than ever before. HPEs expanding relationship with Pensando Systems stems from our shared understanding of enterprises and the cloud. We are proud to announce our investment and solution partnership with Pensando and will continue to drive solutions that anticipate our customers needs together.

See the article here:

Edge computing startup Pensando comes out of stealth mode with a total of $278 million in funding - TechCrunch