Cloud storage company Egnyte sees $16 million in funding from Google

What You Need to Know

1. Cloud services allow users to save files online in a secure manner.
2. Google ventures are investing $16 million in cloud storage company Egnyte.
3. The investment is primarily to help raise brand awareness.
4. Egnyte will be entering a competitive market with established names such as Dropbox.
5. By matching the services of existing market leaders, Egnyte hopes to lure away some of their custom.

Cloud storage, where businesses and individuals can store, access, organise and amend files from a secure online location, is becoming the file storage solution of choice for a growing number of companies looking to save money and make the whole process of storing files simpler. To reflect this, the investment arm of Google is to help give one start-up company offering this service by giving them money in return for a place on their board.

Google Ventures are spearheading a $16 million investment in California-based cloud storage firm Egnyte, with one of their partners, Karim Faris, set to take a seat on the company’s board as part of the deal. The money invested in Egnyte is designed to help them increase awareness of both its brand and services, including its “hybrid cloud” product, as well as to compete with some of its main rivals such as Dropbox and Box.

Egnyte, who as well as having a base in Silicon Valley also have a data centre located in Amsterdam, expect to establish a sales centre in Europe using some of the money. This move should help them to appeal to customers worldwide, which in turn could help it to usurp Box and other cloud storage companies as the biggest and best provider of online file storage in the marketplace. Egnyte have made moves designed to attract users of Box’s services by matching its services.

The hybrid cloud product is aimed to make it easier to use for those new to cloud computing, and with the money from Google Ventures, Egnyte will find it easier than before to spend on marketing projects. The money will also mean that, for the first time, their marketing budget will be at levels closer to those of rivals, in particular Box, who are seen as the current cloud computing market leader.