CFOs stare at growing financial black holes. It comes from their cloud building. As businesses double their AI infrastructure, cloud usage has skyrocketed at a rate that most financial teams can’t keep up. Costs are bloated, long-term contracts lock businesses into risky commitments, with little visibility or predictive support for those who actually approve spending.
That is the gap that Cloud Capital is intervening to resolve.
Cloud Capital wants to bring the reins back to lending to leaders by predicting cloud use from stealth with $7.7 million fresh funds, identifying safe savings and eliminating financial risks associated with multi-year cloud commitments.
It was founded by Edward Burrow (CEO), Spencer Pingley (CTO), and Zach Risio (CPO). This is all iterative SaaS founders leave under the belt, but after managing over $500 million in cloud spending between companies like Idio, Zaius, Naytev, and Optimization, the team built cloud capital. They saw first-hand how difficult it is to control cloud costs at scale, how often CFOs make decisions without the actual tools to back them up.
“We consider cloud infrastructure to be the biggest, technologically broken market,” said co-founder and CEO Edward Burrow. “We were in the driver’s seat. We’ve built predictions and we’ve had pain. We’ve built cloud capital to provide the same level of control that CFOs span the rest of the P&L.”
The $34.4 billion problem is just getting worse
Cloud infrastructure has quietened to the second-largest cost line after most tech companies’ pay. For AI-Native startups, it could reach 30% to 40% of revenue. Cloud spending is projected to reach a $344 billion run rate in the fourth quarter of 2024, with $1 trillion by 2030 as businesses compete for training and deployment of AI models.
Cloud providers are scaling quickly to meet that demand. Global Data Center investments jumped 51% this year, but those investments are marked with strings. Hyperscaler expects customers to commit to long-term deals and push risk to downstream teams.
Almost 27% of businesses have been blown over cloud budgets, and up to 40% of their savings are left on the table, according to Cloud Capital. Engineers are stuck trying to optimize costs, but accountability rests on the CFO.
“The cloud has always been a large cost center, but using AI workloads through the roof has become the least rapidly growing minimum control line item in P&L.” “CFOs are being asked to approve key cloud investments without visibility or control to manage risk. They will build cloud capital to provide the tools they need to predict spending, manage risk and make smarter decisions.”
Building a finance-first infrastructure in the cloud era
Cloud capital is not only trying to optimize costs, but also reconfigure its cloud infrastructure as a financial asset. The company’s AI-driven platform analyzes real-time usage, engineering plans, and financial models to help teams accurately plan. Companies can simulate spending, find low-risk savings, and completely stop commitment risk. Cloud Capital is even a step towards assuming and absorbing long-term contract liability.
“Other tools help engineers save money. CFOS helps manage risk,” said Spencer Pingley, co-founder and CTO. “We’re building a financial infrastructure. The cloud’s control layer provides a new way for businesses to fund and optimize the cloud, just like other major investments.”
Fast traction, fast funding
The company initially raised $2.3 million in a quiet seed round led by Connect Ventures, and was supported by strategic Fintech Angels. Cloud Capital gained strong traction with early customers and then added a $5.4 million seed round led by Back Ventures and MiddleGame Ventures, with support from DFF Ventures.
“Cloud capital tackles one of the most urgent and overlooked issues in technology: the lack of financial management in cloud infrastructure,” said Rory Stirling, partner at Connect Ventures. “We’re supporting this team, they have problems, they’re only clear from first-hand experience and they’re building with confidence. They’re not just optimizing costs, they’re restructuring financial infrastructure in the cloud era.”
Already used by high-growth startups
Cloud Capital is already live, along with dozens of fast-growing startups in AI, fintech and cybersecurity. The platform helps North American and European CFOs make smarter financial decisions about cloud investments without being locked in inflexible long-term contracts.
For financial teams who are feeling narrowed down from rising AI workloads and runaway cloud buildings, cloud capital could be a lifeline they didn’t need.
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