Isilon System is one of the biggest startup success stories of the past 10 years, with the Seattle storage company rebounding from tough times to sell for a whopping $2.25 billion to EMC in late 2010. The company has continued to grow in its new Pioneer Square headquarters, even gobbling up Bellevue-based Likewise Software last month.
Now, a group of former Isilon engineers and executives — most of whom left the company years ago — have emerged at the helm of a stealthy Seattle startup by the name of Qumulo. Not much is known about the company, and the execs aren’t saying exactly what they are up to yet.
However, the team is comprised of some notable folks, including co-founder and CEO Peter Godman. An early engineer at Isilon, Godman left the company in 2007 after serving in a number of roles, including vice president of engineering. The MIT grad then founded and led software startup Corensic before incorporating Qumulo last month.
Also, on the founding team is CTO Aaron Passey who had served as chief architect at Isilon from 2001 to 2008 and Neal Fachan, a former technical staff member at Google who worked at Isilon in various engineering roles from 2001 to 2008. Fachan most recently was a principal engineer at Amazon.com.
According to SEC filing today, the company has raised $500,000 of a $2.2 million financing round. Listed as a director is Charles Curran, a partner at Valhalla Ventures whose past investments include infrastructure companies such as LeftHand Networks, Nirvanix, SolidFire, Jumptap and Active Storage.
It’s unclear who else is backing the company, but I reached out to previous Isilon Systems’ investor Matt McIlwain of Madrona Venture Group to get his take.
“Great team in stealth mode. Nothing else to add right now,” said McIlwain.
Reached today, Godman declined to comment on any aspect of the business, including the financing.
“I don’t really think we are in a position where we can comment publicly,” said Godman.
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