ADC Specialist KEMP Technologies Nets $16 Million In VC Funding

KEMP Technologies, an emerging player in the application delivery controller (ADC) and load balancer market dominated by F5 Networks and larger vendors like Cisco and Citrix, said this week it had locked up $16 million in investor funding. The money will be used for product development, sales expansion, and extending its international presence, according to KEMP.

Edison Ventures led the round with a $7.5 million contribution, and KEMP also received funding from Kennet Partners and ORIX. The round marks the first time that KEMP, which was founded in 2000 in Yaphank, N.Y., has received venture capital funding.

KEMP offers Layer 4-7 load balancing, content switching, server persistence, SSL offload/acceleration, caching, compression, intrusion prevention and other functions through its LoadMaster products, which it markets as more affordable than the better known competitive brands. Its product portfolio also includes a Virtual LoadMaster designed for VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V environments, and what KEMP describes as the first server load balancing appliance specifically designed for Microsoft Exchange 2010.

[Related: F5: Security Stars Are Aligned ]

In a statement, Lenard Marcus, principal of Edison Ventures, described KEMP's products as "mission critical for managing infrastructure," while Edison partner Tom Vander Schaaff said that KEMP's customers "viewed the technology as a must have and commended the reliability of the technology."

KEMP has an active program for VARs and systems integrators, and is among an emerging class of smaller ADC and data center-centric vendors that are looking to cultivate channel partnerships and position themselves as alternatives to F5, which by most analyst estimates controls about half of the Layer 4-7 switching market.