This European Data Startup Just Raised $10M to Solve a $29.3 Billion Problem

Jan de Vries · 2026-07-28

### A Bridge Between Two Worlds A Sofia-based company just made a big bet that the future of enterprise data isn't about choosing between the cloud and on-premises storage. It's about having both, seamlessly. Tiger Technology, a file data services company that specializes in on-premises-first hybrid cloud workflows, has announced the initial closing of a $10 million Series A financing round. The round was led by TCEE Fund IV, advised by 3TS Capital Partners, with participation from TDJ, Endeavor Catalyst, Impetus, and existing investors including MFG Invest and Dimitar Ratchev. ### Why This Matters Right Now Here's a number that should make any IT leader pause: over 40% of enterprise data is still stored on-premises. And 80% of that data is unstructured. But here's the kicker -- more than half of it is "dark." That means it's sitting on a hard drive somewhere, taking up space, but never being analyzed or used. That's a massive missed opportunity. And it's costing companies millions every year. "This investment is an important validation of the technology, customer trust and international business our team has built," said Iravan Hira, CEO of Tiger Technology. "It gives us the resources to accelerate our global expansion, amplify our partnerships with leading cloud and technology platforms, and bring Tiger Technology's always-on, AI-ready data infrastructure to many more companies operating in mission-critical environments." ### The $29.3 Billion Opportunity The global hybrid storage market is projected to hit $29.3 billion by 2030. That growth is being driven by two forces colliding: exploding volumes of unstructured data and enterprise AI adoption that needs data to be usable, not just stored. Think about it this way. AI models are hungry. They need data to train on, analyze, and learn from. But if that data is locked away in on-premises storage or scattered across different environments, it's essentially useless. Tiger Technology claims it operates in the mission-critical segment, where performance degradation is itself considered a failure. Its flagship solution, Tiger Bridge, installs on top of customers' existing cloud and on-premise storage environments as a powerful control layer. It continuously gives users and applications consistent and transparent data access. ### Real Results, Not Just Hype Founded in 2004 by Alexander Lefterov, Tiger Technology isn't a newcomer. It's been quietly building for nearly two decades. The company says it manages over 100 petabytes of data for some of the largest and most demanding transportation, media, construction, and government customers in the world. And the results they're seeing are impressive: - A 10x increase in file-restore speed during a multi-petabyte cloud migration - On-premises storage reductions of up to 90% - Unlocking 10 years' worth of historical data for AI analysis "Many years ago, we made a bet that felt contrarian at the time," said Alexander Lefterov, founder and CTO. "The industry was drawing a hard line between 'cloud' and 'on-premises' -- as if enterprises would eventually have to pick one and abandon the other. We didn't believe that. We believed the real need was a transparent bridge between the two: seamless, efficient, and invisible to the workflows that depend on it." ### What This Means for You If you're an IT leader or a startup founder dealing with data management challenges, this funding round signals something important. The market is waking up to the fact that hybrid infrastructure isn't a compromise. It's the smart play. Tiger Technology's approach lets organizations place, protect, and activate data for AI and other modern applications without replacing existing infrastructure or disrupting operations. That's a big deal for companies that can't afford downtime. As organizations accelerate cloud adoption and AI initiatives, Tiger Technology is exceptionally well positioned to scale globally. The company has built a highly differentiated platform that enables enterprises to modernize their data infrastructure while preserving existing investments. And with $10 million in fresh capital, they're not slowing down anytime soon.