Startups Score in Funding Uptick

It's not quite mid-January, and 2005 already looks like a good year for startups in storage networking. Since New Year's Day, three startups have scored $44.5 million in new funding. And word has it at least two more are set to get nearly that much before the end of the month.

The latest vendor to announce new investment is backup software maker Bocada Inc., which has scored $9.5 million in a third round led by Partech International (see Bocada Scores $9.5M). Bocada, which claims 150 customers and has about 60 employees, will use the new funds to expand sales and marketing. The round brings Bocada's venture funding total to about $20 million since the firm's founding in 2000.

Bocada's news was preceded by two other funding announcements last week:

• Netezza Corp., which makes a data-warehousing appliance that can offload SAN gear, gained $15 million in a fourth round led by Meritech Capital Partners (see Netezza Nets $15M More). Netezza now has $68 million in funding.

• Riverbed Technology Inc.

, which makes wide-area file services (WAFS) software, has garnered $20 million in a third round led by Goldman Sachs & Co. (see Riverbed Scores $20M). Riverbed now has $37 million in venture funding.