Red-hot software start-up Rubrik has zoomed to a $1.3 billion valuation in two years

Two years ago, former venture capitalist Bipul Sinha had 25 developers working on his new start-up Rubrik , aiming to revolutionize the boring data back-up space.

Rubrik now has 330 employees and Sinha said the company has just raised $180 million at a $1.3 billion valuation in an investment round led by Institutional Venture Partners.

Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sinha's former employer and the initial investor in Rubrik, raised a separate $95.5 million pool of cash, according to an SEC filing on Friday. A Lightspeed spokesperson confirmed that the money is specifically dedicated to bolstering its stake in Rubrik, and said it's one of the fastest growing software companies the firm has ever seen.

Rubrik is playing on an emerging theme in the enterprise: bringing static data to life. Rather than storing big files away onto machines deep in the data center, Rubrik lets customers not only back up the information digitally but then put it to work. The company's data management product works across the various clouds and in servers on site to let businesses see how, where and by whom data is being used.

"We've woken up this sleepy market," said Sinha, who publicly launched Rubrik in March 2015.

Sinha said that the company reached annualized revenue of $100 million in January and could more than double that number this year. Rubrik is adding 70 to 90 employees a quarter and signing on a similar number of clients. The biggest contract was a $3.3 million deal from an insurance company, Sinha said.

Greylock Partners joined IVP and Lightspeed in the round. The funding hits just a few weeks after Rubrik rival Cohesity announced a $90 million round led by GV, the start-up investing arm of Alphabet.

Rubrik's previous $61 million round in August was led by Khosla Ventures.