May 25, 2007
Fabrik weaving storage solutions
Fabrik is attempting to take online storage to the next level and the backing of venture capital group 3i this week ought to help.
Fourth-round funding of $25m will help Fabrik launch an integrated service in the autumn that will give users control through a single interface over documents, photos and video stored online, offline and on any local or network-attached devices.
The Silicon Valley company is led by Mike Cordano, formerly with the Maxtor hard drive company. The chief executive says he saw a need for applications and services to be developed for storage.
Fabrik’s first iteration is myfabrik.com, which offers 1Gb of free storage and charges 49 cents a month for each extra gigabyte needed.
Online storage companies abound, but Fabrik has differentiated itself with its appealing user interface and the ability to embed its stored media in blogs and social-network pages.
In February, Fabrik paid $43m for the consumer business of SimpleTech, a maker of external hard drives, and more acquisitions can be expected after the 3i cash injection and the appointment of Ross Levinsohn to the board this week.
He was most recently president at Fox Interactive Media, overseeing more than 10 acquisitions including MySpace.
“We think there are some very nice opportunities in this broadly defined storage space to do some unique things and grow at a clip,” Mike Cordano told us.
