Western Digital Corp. has added more backing in San Jose-based startup Skycera Inc. as part of a recent $51 million financing round.
The Irvine-based disk drive maker’s Western Digital Capital was a co-investor in the Series B round led by Dell Ventures, the strategic investment arm of computer-maker Dell Inc. in Round Rock, Texas.
Western Digital was Skycera’s initial outside investor. It was attracted to the company’s storage systems for corporate customers.
Skycera’s 19/20 nanometer solid-state drives are billed as being able to replace traditional corporate hard drives, which use spinning disks to store data. SSDs, which are typically more expensive, use chips in place of spinning disks.
The emerging SSD segment is expected to grow from $393 million in sales last year to nearly $4.2 billion in 2016, according to Stamford, Conn.-based market tracker Gartner Inc.
Western Digital has long eyed the corporate sector, which generally has higher margins, to complement its long-standing presence in the consumer market.
Western Digital’s acquisition of Carlsbad-based Arkeia Software Inc. earlier this year is expected to boost market share among small and medium-sized businesses. Arkeia makes data backup software and provides other services.
—Chris Casacchia
