Cloudability raises $8.7 million in venture backing, plans to grow Portland office
July 12, 2012
Grazed from Oregan Live. Author: Mike Rogoway.
The forecast continues to brighten at Cloudability.
The Portland startup plans to announce today that it has landed $8.7 million in investment backing to help market its technology, which helps businesses manage their computing in the "cloud."
Many companies, large and small, have shifted much of their data storage and processing into data centers — large, centralized facilities packed with thousands or tens of thousands of computers. Companies such as Amazon.com and Rackspace lease space in their server farms…
Cloudability
Product: Online tools to help companies track their cloud computing usage and cut unnecessary expenses.
Founded: 2011, in Vancouver
Funding: $8.7 million in new investment, led by Foundry Group. Other participants include 500 Startups, Trinity Ventures and Wieden+Kennedy. Previously raised $1.2 million in "seed" investment from venture firms and angel investors.
Employees: 15, including 10 in Portland.
Offices: Cloudability was a member of the first class at W+K’s Portland Incubator Experiment; its headquarters remain at PIE in the Pearl District.
Financials: Undisclosed
Cloudability helps businesses manage that, so they’re paying for just what they need.
"We can alert you, before you even spend it, that you’re going to overspend," said Mat Ellis, the company’s founder and chief executive.
Today’s investment round is led by the Foundry Group. The Colorado firm was also an early investor in Urban Airship, a prominent Portland mobile app developer.
Cloudabilty currently employs 15, including 10 at its offices in Wieden+Kennedy’s tech clubhouse, the Portland Incubator Experiment (W+K is also an investor in today’s venture round).
Ellis said he plans a burst of hiring, adding software engineers, marketers and salespeople, and that the Portland office could double in size this year.
Cloud computing is big business in rural Oregon, where Amazon, Google and Facebook all have large data centers. Apple has begun work on its own facility, near Facebook’s installation in Prineville.
In Portland, a cluster of startups — unconnected to what’s going on in Oregon’s backcountry — has sprung up to help companies manage their cloud computing operations.
AppFog, Cedexis and Puppet Labs all announced their own funding rounds last year.
"It’s kind of a Northwest thing," Ellis said. "We joke about it being a cloudy environment."