Validus DC Systems, a leading provider of integrated DC power infrastructure for data centers and telecommunications facilities, today announced the closing of US$10 million in a first round of venture funding led by Oak Hill Venture Partners. The new financing will be used to accelerate commercial deployments of Validus' fully-integrated DC power infrastructure that delivers scalable, reliable and modular solutions for mission-critical data centers, while improving energy efficiency by up to 40% percent.
In addition to this latest funding, Data Support Associates, Inc., a company co-founded by Validus DC Systems' founder and CEO, Rudy Kraus, provided $4 million of seed capital in 2002 to start the company and begin development of Validus' end-to-end DC-power solution for data centers, which was developed in conjunction with Dr. Marcel Gaudreau, formerly head of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Plasma Science and Fusion Center.
"Data center efficiency is no longer just an IT issue; it's one of the most pressing concerns across all levels of business management, said Rudy Kraus, CEO and founder, Validus DC Systems. "This significant investment by Oak Hill Venture Partners is further validation that Validus technology can deliver the promised benefits of DC power in a scalable and modular design that businesses can use within existing IT infrastructure.
As businesses face escalating space, power, and cooling costs required to ensure their data centers can support growing operational demands, data center efficiency has become a critical issue not only for the reduction of energy consumption and power costs, but for a company's ability to maintain normal business growth. Validus DC Systems recognizes that legacy AC-power infrastructures introduce substantial levels of inefficiency by requiring multiple energy-wasting conversions between AC and DC power throughout all levels of the data center, and significantly more physical equipment to make the data center reliable, which adds additional power and cooling requirements and unnecessary points of failure.
With a time-tested history of powering the nation's mission-critical operations like rail, mining, transportation, nuclear, military and international telecommunications systems, DC power has proven to be a more efficient and reliable alternative to legacy AC-power infrastructures. Validus' open and scalable architecture technology delivers the immediate energy-efficiency benefits of DC power along with significant long-term cost-savings, all with the same look and feel of AC power equipment.
"The Validus DC Systems business is a direct fit for our data center investment focus. The company has designed an end to end DC power distribution system that offers compelling power savings and increased server density versus conventional solutions. This business is well positioned for substantial growth in the next few years as an increasing number of data centers migrate to higher efficiency power delivery that is also environmentally friendly. We look forward to working with Rudy Kraus and his outstanding management team, said David Brown, Managing Partner at Oak Hill Venture Partners.