MONTREAL & SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kaloom, an emerging leader in the fully automated data center networking software market, today announced that it has raised a $10 million Series A1 funding round. The latest financing was led by the Fonds de solidarité FTQ, and Somel Investments, with the participation from MBUZZ Investments. This cash infusion brings Kaloom’s total investments to $20.7 million.
Kaloom is based in the heart of the Quartier de l'innovation in Montreal, Quebec and in the Silicon Valley. The company was founded by its CEO, Laurent Marchand, with the vision of providing the industry’s most automated and programmable data center networking fabric, one that will disrupt how data centers are built and managed by cloud providers, telcos and enterprises.
The new funding will advance the development and sales of Kaloom’s innovative automated Software Defined Fabric (SDF), an industrialized software solution for open networking white boxes, including Accton, Delta and others. Kaloom’s SDF is ideally suited for hyperscale as well as distributed data center environments that have a need for low latency, low cost, programmable solutions. The company will also use the funds to expand its employee base from 70 to 100 by the end of the year.
“We see a strong need among current beta and other potential customers to do something ‘bottom up’ with the networking fabric, where the switches self-discover and self-provision themselves automatically in a network that ultimately supports programmability,” said Laurent Marchand, CEO and founder of Kaloom. “The latest funding round is validation of Kaloom’s approach and where we believe the industry is moving; enabling us to grow faster than planned and respond to growing customer demand.”
“In a very short period, Kaloom has developed world class software for data centers. We are excited to see such strong interest in the company and its solution and see a bright future with Kaloom. After our initial investment for Kaloom’s launch in 2017, we are pleased to continue to support the company’s growth,” said Gaétan Morin, President and CEO of the Fonds de solidarité FTQ.
The transaction is subject to standard closing conditions.
Kaloom Expands Executive Team with VP of Sales and VP of Marketing
During the past two months, Kaloom has bolstered its already experienced leadership team by appointing Mike Rymkiewicz as the new vice president of sales, and Thomas Eklund as Kaloom’s vice president of marketing. Rymkiewicz has a proven track record of bringing new products to market and ramping up sales at Amazon, Google and Oracle. Eklund oversees Kaloom’s product vision, strategy and marketing. He comes to Kaloom after working with companies recognized as leaders in AI, automation, analytics and fully closed-loop systems, and with a successful track record from previous companies including Xelerated, Jolata, Cipherlex and SwitchCore, as well as Ericsson.
About Kaloom
Kaloom is an emerging company developing a fully automated, programmable data center networking software solution that will disrupt how cloud and data center networks are built, managed and operated for enterprises, cloud providers, gaming companies, data center operators and 5G wireless providers. Kaloom comprises technology veterans with proven track records of delivering large-scale networking, analytics and AI-based solutions for the world’s largest networks. The company is backed by leading investors including Fonds de solidarité FTQ and Somel Investments. Kaloom is based in the heart of the Quartier de l'innovation in Montreal, Quebec and in the Silicon Valley. For additional information visit www.kaloom.com.
About Fonds de solidarité FTQ
The Fonds de solidarité FTQ is a development capital investment fund that channels the savings of Quebecers into investments. As at May 31, 2018, the organization had $14.3 billion is net assets, and through its current portfolio of investments has helped create and protect 194,746 jobs. The Fonds is a partner in 2,839 companies and has 667,417 shareholder-savers. Find out more at www.fondsftq.com.
