Elevator pitch: Software that allows IT companies to sell online data storage services.

The idea: The company hopes to be a big player in an emerging market in cloud storage, which is secure online file storage, sharing and collaboration. Instead of keeping your files on computers, users store them and access them online. Mezeo provides a storage platform that companies can brand as their own and resell.

Users: Five under contract, including Japanese telephone company KDDI, and another 15 potential customers are trying out the program. Each client reaches “thousands” of users so far.

The brains: CEO Steve Lesem and Chairman Gray Hall worked together at VeriCenter, a Houston provider of managed Internet hosting, co-location and storage services, which was sold to Pennsylvania-based SunGard in 2007. Lesem and three other executives also previously worked at BMC Software.

The competition: Amazon.com has a cloud storage service called S3. San Antonio-based Rackspace has one called Cloud Files.

The money: The company’s main backer is Altazano Management, a Houston private equity firm. Altazano has invested “millions,” Lesem said.

Mezeo featured in this Houston Chronicle article.