Kazeon Files Away $21 Million

Kazeon has turned its early success in the information classification management (ICM) space into big bucks.

Kazeon on Monday will announce a $21 million second round of funding, bringing its total haul to date to $44 million. Menlo Ventures, Focus Ventures and all previous investors participated in the oversubscribed round.

With a couple dozen customers, more in the wings, and a high-profile partnership with Google, Kazeon is off to a solid start in the ICM market. Kazeon says its partnership with Google “is going extremely well and is exceeding expectations,” and the two “are now in discussions regarding joint marketing activities.”

“Kazeon is indeed an early leader in the ICM market,” said Arun Taneja, founder and consulting analyst at the Taneja Group. “My understanding is that the Google partnership is bearing fruit for them. Google does not know the enterprise search market, but they need a solution there. I understand that every time they run into that — when wouldn’t they? — they are bringing Kazeon in.”

However, Taneja adds, “The market is still very early and several other players will be participating very soon.”

Scentric, Njini and FAST are also in the space, he notes. EMC has invested in StoredIQ and also has its own ICM plans.

“The shape of the battle is not clear yet,” says Taneja, “But I expect a battle nevertheless. ICM is the brain of ILM and, as such, we will see a lot of activity in this space during the balance of the year and in 2007.”

Kazeon, which also boasts partnerships with Network Appliance, Symantec and Hitachi Data Systems, will use the funds to expend its U.S. and International sales, marketing and engineering to “accelerate its time to profitability.”

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