A DNA-based platform for data storage and computation startup, Catalog, announced the completion of its Series A funding worth $10 million.
Funded by a group of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the firm now has a total funding of $21 million. The recent Series A funding was led by Horizons Ventures and Airbus Ventures.
According to the firm, the money will be used for early product trials, research, and development for its Shannon DNA offering, and data storage platform. Catalog secured additional funding from its wealth of investors including NEA, OS Fund, Data Collective, AME Cloud, and SOSV.
The Shannon DNA platform is developed with the help of Cambridge Consultants and can ease data writing at a speed of 10 megabytes per second. This storage also stores up to 1.6 terabytes of compressed data in a single run, which benefits data centers.
The firm announced that they are representing the functionality and reliability of DNA-based data storage by storing the full English text of Wikipedia, that will only use 16 gigabytes of data.
Investors like Airbus Ventures sees the potential of the DNA-based data storage and platform in the future.
“Catalog co-founder Hyunjun Park and his team are revolutionizing data storage and computation to meet acure needs for advanced, long-term storage capabilities, essential to a growing number of industries,” said Airbus Ventures partner Nicole Conner.
In addition to the new round of funding, there is news about Catalog onboarding with former and long-time IBM Vice President for technical computing, David Turek. Although the company hasn’t formally announced anything yet, the ex-IBM VP has included the position in his personal LinkedIn account.
Turek worked with IBM for 21 years and helped the company flourish to what it is today. Asked about his opinion on Catalog, the chief technology officer said, “It’s very cool. The intersection of HW, SW, and Chemistry.”
Store Archival Data
Catalog addresses the challenges faced by data-intensive companies today, providing a viable solution to reduce the cost of storage, and at the same time, keep the for ‘hundreds of years.’
While the traditional storage can only store data for up to five years, the storage density of DNA-based storage is lighter. According to the firm, a football field’s worth of storage capacity can fit into a sugar cube size container with DNA storage. This can remain stable for thousands of years.
The Boston-based firm is the first to demonstrate the potential of DNA technology in high-density storage and archival data.