SynapSense Raises $16 Million for DCIM

The market for data center infrastructure management (DCIM) tools continues to see strong activity. Today SynapSense announced that the company has secured $16 million in a Series C round financing to expand its operations.

Led by Crosslink Capital, the investment will help SynapSense to provide global support for data center operations and meet the strong demand for its data center optimization platform, the company said. Synapsense's technology helps data center operators monitor energy use and cooling conditions through a network of sensors managed by a wireless network.

Crosslink Capital joins an investment group in this round that includes Aeris Capital, Emerald Technology Ventures, GE Energy Financial Services, Nth Power, Robert Bosch Venture Capital and Sequoia Capital. Louis DiNardo, Partner with Crosslink Capital, has joined the SynapSense Board of Directors in conjunction with this financing. SynapSense previously raised $10 million in 2007 , $7 million in 2009 and$5 million in 2010.

Increased Product Development

“SynapSense has developed a data center optimization platform that delivers exceptional value and return on investment for our customers," said Peter Van Deventer, CEO of SynapSense. "This financing will help us extend our industry-leading platform through increased investment in product development and global market expansion. Strong customer demand validates that real ROI is the core component of the emerging DCIM segment and SynapSense has emerged as the recognized leader."

"SynapSense has a winning solution that has attracted many of the world’s largest data center operators," said DiNardo. "The company’s solutions provide unparalleled energy savings and insight for Data Center Infrastructure Management. SynapSense is on a steep growth trajectory and we are thrilled to join the company and its existing investors."

Equipment monitoring is of critical importance as companies optimize their data centers to be more energy-efficient. Data collection is essential to measuring progress and return on investment (ROI) in data center consolidations and virtualization projects, while temperature data from throughout the facility is a key tool in optimizing a data center’s cooling. The lack of instrumentation has been cited as making it difficult to calculate potential ROI on different approaches in data centers.

SynapSense is also working with many of the world’s leading data center operators to implement real-time measurement of emerging industry energy-efficiency metrics, including PUE and DCiE.