The latest investment round comes from InterWest Partners, TPG Ventures, JP Morgan Partners, and QTV Capital. They put up the money in a tranched deal, which allows Sierra to draw only the capital it needs. It is believed that Sierra will initially take about half the cash because it can avoid further dilution if no further capital is required before the company begins generating positive cash flow.
The California-based company is currently operating in quiet mode. However, its product line is thought to be technology based on a new connectivity standard called Serial ATA (advanced technology attachment) for connecting hard drives to computers and servers. Specifically, it is developing chips for low-cost RAID systems.
At the moment, the disk drives used in RAID devices are relatively expensive. The new generation of RAID systems should use much less expensive disk drives, more like those found in new desktop computers. Sierra Logic chips are designed to control these budget disks, and give them the reliability of the more expense disk drives. The chips are also designed to replace expensive and complex circuit boards.
Sierra Logic was founded in July 2001 and employs 50 people. It raised $12 million in Series B funding in September 2002, and $5.2 million Series A in February 2002.
This article was based on material originally published by ComputerWire.
