OpenStack Cloud Startup Metacloud Raises $15M

Metacloud, a Pasadena, Calif.-based enterprise cloud startup whose technology is based on OpenStack, has closed a $15 million Series B funding round. The company, whose backers include Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang's AME Cloud Ventures, said it will use the funding to expanding its team and speed up development of its product.

OpenStack is a popular open source cloud infrastructure technology used by companies large and small to compete with incumbent providers of proprietary private and public cloud solutions and services.

Steve Curry, Metacloud president and co-founder said the company's install base had doubled over the last quarter and grew 10 percent per month on average.

"We see this round as further validation of both our business model and our technological capabilities,” he said. “We have filled a significant market gap by offering solutions that combine the convenience of public cloud with the security, predictability and economic advantages of private cloud."

Metacloud added a hosted version of its Private OpenStack Cloud last February to an on-premise version. Each version has its own appeal. The on-prem one puts the agility of cloud behind the corporate firewall, on company-owned hardware, within its own data centers. The hosted version is a turn-key solution for those not interested in building or managing their own cloud infrastructure.

The latest round featured new investors, including Pelion Venture Partners, Silicon Valley Bank and UMC Capital, as well as prior investors AME, Canaan Partners and Storm Ventures.

“With this round, Metacloud establishes itself as a company that has arrived,” AME's Yang said. “They are in a large and competitive market, but they have all the ingredients to be big winners, and we are excited at the opportunity to reinvest in their future.”