IaaS Provider To The Channel Peak Closes $16M Funding

Channel-focused Infrastructure-as-a-Service cloud provider Peak this week said it has raised $16 million in debt and equity funding over the last 12 months to fuel the growth of its business.

That amount of investment is significant given prior investment in Peak totaled $4 million to $6 million, said Luke Norris, CEO and founder of Denver-based Peak.

Peak provides cloud services through traditional solution providers and MSPs, and is one of the few cloud service providers with a 100 percent focus on channel partners, Norris said.

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The company provides Peak-branded or white-label services, including choice of hypervisors, 100 percent SLA guarantees and simple plug-in access to Peak's cloud locations, Norris told CRN. The company currently has eight geographies in the U.S. and Europe.

Peak has not owned its own cloud nodes since it was known as PeakColo, Norris said. Instead, it partners with other hosted data center providers like New York-based Telx, its biggest data center partner, he said.

All six of Peak's geographies where the company has had a presence for at least 18 months are cash flow-positive, as is the company as a whole, Norris said.

"We're cash flow-positive, but that's not enough to fuel growth," he said. "We have an awful amount of growth, and everything we do is CapEx, so we have to invest up front."

Peak will use the funding to purchase compute, storage and networking infrastructure to expand its cloud business, Norris said. The company is also looking at expanding its geographical presence, possibly via acquisitions.

"We're also looking at doing more with Infrastructure-as-a-Service, including expanding into OpenStack," he said. "And we're considering moving upscale to platform-as-a-service."

The new funding shows Peak is ready to tackle the future, said Eric Hughes, CEO of Komodo Cloud, a Los Angeles-based IT consultant and provider of analytics and cloud migration services.

"As a betting man, I'm placing my bets on Peak," Hughes told CRN. "They're one of the companies that will make it to the finish line. There will be a lot of growth in the cloud business. Peak's funding, coupled with their technology and ability to help customers to the cloud, coupled with their channel focus, makes it a winner."

Peak's channel-only focus makes it a good partner, Hughes said.

"Peak's biggest competition is the status quo," he said. "The promise of the cloud, when you look at it from an economic and a business management perspective, is clear. But a lot of CxOs look at the cloud and wonder what it means for them in terms of control. Peak provides the flexibility and control they need. It's not a no-brainer, but pretty darn close."

PUBLISHED NOV. 14, 2014