Storage Startups Stay StrongStorage Startups Stay Strong

Storage vendors with cutting-edge offerings continued to lure venture capitalists last week, as three storage networking startups drew $56 million in second-round funding.

Z-force Communications in Santa Clara, Calif., got $16 million from Allegis Capital, Alloy Ventures, and Rock Creek Capital. Z-force plans to play in the network-attached storage space, increase data speeds across networks, and give customers scalability for less money when it comes out of stealth mode early next year.

Storigen Systems got $15 million, mostly from Pilot House Ventures. The Lowell, Mass., company plans

to ship a system that customers can attach at the edge of the network, close to users, so they can avoid high WAN charges.

Maranti Networks in Milpitas, Calif., got $25 million from Menlo Ventures and Trinity Ventures.

It plans to integrate isolated SANs with the worldwide general-purpose IP network.