Green Cloud Technologies Lands $5.6M in New Funding

On the heels of expanding into four new U.S. markets, Infrastructure-as-a-Service provider (IaaS) Green Cloud Technologies has closed $5.6 million in newly issued Series C equity.

The new funding round was led by Millry Corporation along with financial backing from an unnamed investor and existing shareholders. To date, the Greenville, S.C.-based company has received $9.6 million in total funding.

Officials said the new funds have been earmarked to accelerate market expansion, and will be put into sales and marketing and data center investments.??

“We are excited about our follow-on investment in this exploding segment of the Cloud ecosystem,” Annice Jordan, chief financial officer at Millry Corporation, Green Cloud’s largest investor, said in a statement. “We look forward to the growth of Green Cloud as its employees concentrate on providing a best-in-market service offering.”??

Green Cloud recently announced expansion plans into four new markets: South Florida, Greater Atlanta, the Gulf Coast and the Research Triangle region of North Carolina.

The company’s distribution model is focused on channel partner distribution and does not have a direct sales force. Green Cloud partners with local consultants, IT managed service providers and PBX distributors to help its partners leverage the benefits of cloud technologies without making the substantial investments necessary to deploy cloud services.

In addition to the new round of funding, Walter Alessandrini has joined Green Cloud’s board of directors. Alessandrini previously served as chairman and CEO at Avanex, which he led through a successful initial public offering, and chairman and CEO for Ometric (acquired by a Fortune 100).

The IaaS market is the fastest growing segment of cloud-based services. According to a Gartner market analysis report, between 2012-2016, cloud IaaS spending will exceed $72 billion, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42 percent.

Cloud IaaS providers offer virtual machines and supporting resources, including networks, firewalls, Internet connection, electrical/facility and other infrastructure needs.

IaaS, including cloud compute, storage and print services, grew by 42.4 percent in 2012 to $6.1 billion, and is expected to grow 47.3 percent in 2013 to $9 billion.