Cloudant Raises $12 Million for Database-as-a-Service

Mobile and web applications are growing at an astounding clip, bringing the market for hosted databases in tow. That's behind the investment in Database-as-a-Service company Cloudant, which has raised an additional $12 million in Series B Funding from Devonshire Investors, Rackspace, and Toba Capital. Current investors Avalon Ventures, In-Q-Tel, and Samsung Venture Investment Corporation also purchased additional shares. The funding will support global expansion, as well as go towards growing the company’s support, service, and go-to-market strategies.

"The market opportunity for managed, hosted databases is large, and the NoSQL model is where major mobile and Web applications are moving," said David Jegen, managing director at Devonshire Investors. "We’re seeing that shift accelerate across the industry with Cloudant in the sweet spot of this market, adding big customer names with a highly scalable and durable DBaaS."

Cloudant provides a scalable, managed NoSQL DBaaS based on a globally distributed network of data centers. Application developers build their back ends on the Cloudant Data Layer cloud database, freeing developers from the mechanics of data management so they can focus exclusively on their applications. It allows customers to offload the administrative burden of operating and scaling distributed databases.

Samsung announced a strategic investment in the company last February, given its interests in the mobile space.

Support from Rackspace

Rackspace’s investment is also of note, given the service provider is at the heart of the "Internet of things" movement. The company is careful and calculated in terms of what it invests and acquires, usually focusing on what is sees working and grabbing the most attention first hand.

"We hear all the time from customers that dealing with the complexities of large-scale systems infrastructure just slows them down," said Pat Matthews, senior vice president of corporate development at Rackspace. "Developers want control of their infrastructure, but they don’t want to have to manage it 24x7. Cloudant is the natural extension of this idea at the database layer. We’re partners that share a commitment to delivering the highest level of customer support, which is why investing in Cloudant works so well from a Rackspace perspective."

Momentum in the enterprise market has also helped the company court new investors like Vinny Smith at Toba Capital, the former CEO of Quest Software, which he led to IPO and a $2.4-billion acquisition by Dell.

"Enterprises are quickly realizing that they want a cloud that isn’t one size fits all. They want to scale their app without having to customize it to fit within a third-party cloud," said  Smith. "Spending on cloud infrastructure is no longer an IT line-item; it’s now a major line-of-business concern. With strategic support from Rackspace, Cloudant is providing a clearer path for businesses to run large production workloads in the hybrid cloud."

Cloudant also announced the opening of a new office in San Francisco. Market demand recently drove the company’s expansion into the U.K. with an office in Bristol. The company’s headquarters are in Boston, and it has an office in Seattle as well. Cloudant will use its new presence to strengthen its relationships with the Web and mobile application development communities and to build its brand in the enterprise software market.