Cloudant, provider of a globally distributed database-as-a-service (DBaaS), today announced $12 million in series B funding from Devonshire Investors, the private equity firm affiliated with Fidelity Investments; Rackspace Hosting, the open cloud leader; and Toba Capital. The company also announced that current investors " Avalon Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation " purchased additional shares. The funding will be used to support Cloudant's global expansion and grow 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."

In addition to today's funding news, Cloudant is also announcing 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, and both new locations complement Cloudant's Boston headquarters and Seattle office. 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. 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 Vinny Smith , founder of Toba Capital. "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."

"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."

Cloudant's extremely scalable, managed NoSQL DBaaS is based on a globally distributed network of secure, high-performance data centers that provide high availability and low-latency access to data. Around-the-clock expert monitoring and administration allow customers to offload the administrative burden of operating and scaling distributed databases.

About Cloudant
Cloudant provides the world's first globally distributed database-as-a-service (DBaaS) for loading, storing, analyzing, and distributing operational application data for developers of large and/or fast-growing Web and mobile applications. Cloudant's DBaaS is a managed service that helps developers eliminate the delays, costs, and distractions inherent in working with databases and their administrators, while providing unmatched scalability, availability, and performance. This capability accelerates time-to-market and time-to-innovation because it frees developers from the mechanics of data management so they can focus exclusively on creating great applications. Cloudant is privately held and backed by top-tier investors including Avalon Ventures, Devonshire Investors, the private equity firm affiliated with Fidelity Investments, In-Q-Tel, Rackspace Hosting, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, Toba Capital, and Y Combinator. For more information, visit www.cloudant.com.