Pure Storage receives $225 million in Series F venture funding

I reported earlier that flash array storage startup Pure Storage announced a massive new $225 million Series F round that values the company at $3 billion. This signals a growing trend toward startups raising private capital instead of testing the public markets. Inevitably, the conversation is shifting to talk about a “bubble” in storage, especially the hot flash-memory sector. Public companies such as Fusion-io FIO -2.52% and Violin Memory are trading significantly below Pure Storage’s valuation. Violin is valued at $337 million and Fusion-io at $1.06 billion based upon current stock price. Another way to look at it: Pure Storage is worth 5% of EMC EMC -3.18% and 25% of NetApp NTAP -0.51%. The flash market looks like it will eclipse the more recent storage bubble that started in the early 2000s and ended a decade later with blockbuster exits from data domain and 3PAR, Isilon Compellent LeftHand and Equallogic.