CloudShare raises $10 million

Startup scores Series B financing from Sequoia Capital, Gemini Capital and Charles Rivers Ventures

CloudShare, a startup which enables organizations to instantly deploy multiple, independent copies of their existing demo or training environments in the cloud, has raised $10 million in series B financing from Sequoia Capital, Gemini Capital and Charles River Ventures.  With this round, the company has raised a total of $16 million.

The Palo Alto-based startup offers a platform for companies to share copies of complex IT environments online.  It's meant to help business collaborate with customers, partners and colleagues for demos, proof-of-concept, training and other enterprise applications.  But the whole idea of it living up in the cloud is so time isn't wasted copying gigabytes of software or shipping machines to each other.  

Some of CloudShare's customers include VMware, Cisco and SAP.  CloudShare says these clients have already delivered over one million demos and training hours to date since the company was founded in 2007.  The startup said this success demonstrated the practical, revenue-oriented, immediately useful nature of its platform.  

"We have officially come out of stealth mode with marquee customers, a proven cloud-based technology platform, and $10M in funding to help build out our vision. We now have all the right assets in place and we look forward to reaping the benefits in 2010 and beyond," said Zvi Guterman, CEO of CloudShare.

CloudShare will use the investment to fund product development and expand its go-to-market capabilities.