# Poojan Kumar

> Poojan Kumar is a serial entrepreneur and cloud infrastructure pioneer who co-founded Clumio, a cloud-native backup-as-a-service company that raised $261M before being acquired by Commvault in September 2024. A Stanford-educated IIT Bombay alumnus, Kumar previously co-founded PernixData (acquired by Nutanix in 2016) and was the founding engineer behind Oracle Exadata. At Clumio he built one of the leading AWS data protection platforms, amassing 1,000+ enterprise customers including Atlassian and LexisNexis, and now serves as Chief Product Innovation Officer at Commvault.

- **Role:** Chief Product Innovation Officer at Commvault
- **Organizations:** Commvault, Clumio, PernixData, Nutanix, VMware, Oracle
- **Nationality:** Indian-American
- **Education:** Bachelor of Technology, Computer Science, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Master of Science, Computer Science, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Co-founded and led Clumio from zero to $261M in total funding and 1,000+ enterprise customers, Raised $200M within 3 months of Clumio's public product launch in 2019, Successfully exited PernixData via acquisition by Nutanix in 2016

## Career timeline

- **Late 1990s - 2000s** — Founding engineer on Oracle Exadata, one of Oracle's flagship database hardware platforms
- **2000s - early 2010s** — Head of Data Products at VMware; combined Oracle/VMware tenure approximately 11 years
- **2012** — Co-founded PernixData, a server-side flash and RAM virtualization startup
- **2016** — PernixData acquired by Nutanix; Kumar joins as VP of Engineering and Products
- **2017** — Left Nutanix to co-found Clumio, a cloud-native backup-as-a-service company; raised $11M Series A pre-product from Sutter Hill Ventures
- **2018** — Clumio raises $40M Series B led by Index Ventures
- **2019 (August)** — Clumio emerges from stealth mode with first product launch
- **2019 (November)** — Clumio raises $135M Series C led by Sutter Hill Ventures and Altimeter Capital just 3 months after launch
- **2022** — Clumio launches SecureVault Lite air-gapped ransomware protection; expands to Amazon DynamoDB and S3
- **2023** — Clumio achieves 4x year-over-year ARR growth; wins InfoWorld Technology of the Year award
- **2024 (February)** — Clumio raises $75M Series D led by Sutter Hill Ventures; surpasses 1,000 customers
- **2024 (June)** — Kumar steps down as CEO of Clumio, transitions to Chairman role
- **2024 (September)** — Commvault acquires Clumio; Kumar becomes Chief Product Innovation Officer at Commvault

## Achievements

- Co-founded and led Clumio from zero to $261M in total funding and 1,000+ enterprise customers
- Raised $200M within 3 months of Clumio's public product launch in 2019
- Successfully exited PernixData via acquisition by Nutanix in 2016
- Founding engineer of Oracle Exadata, one of Oracle's most significant database hardware platforms
- Delivered 4x year-over-year ARR growth at Clumio in 2023
- Won InfoWorld Technology of the Year award for Cloud Compliance and Governance
- Built Clumio to support AWS workloads for blue-chip enterprises including Atlassian and LexisNexis
- Raised Clumio's Series A before a product existed - rare pre-product funding from top-tier VCs

## Latest updates

- **2024-09** — Commvault completes acquisition of Clumio; Poojan Kumar named Chief Product Innovation Officer at Commvault
- **2024-06** — Kumar transitions from CEO to Chairman at Clumio ahead of the Commvault acquisition
- **2024-02** — Clumio raises $75M Series D, announces 4x year-over-year ARR growth and 1,000+ customer milestone

## Links

- Website: https://clumio.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/poojankumar/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/poojan

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/poojan-kumar
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-13