Funding Daily: Investors are up in the clouds

It’s no secret that investors love cloud companies. Today proved that. Half of the technology companies funded today have some footing in the cloud industry.

And hey, would you look at that, we have our awesome CloudBeat conference coming up where you can see more of these cloud startups in our Innovation Showdown. Maybe you, Mr. or Ms. Investor, can get an early jump on some cool technology.

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Powa could seriously change mobile e-commerce with $76M first round of funding

Powa Technologies, a mobile payments startup in the U.K., raised a huge $76 million first round of funding today. Powa makes a credit card processing dongle called mPowa, similar to its competitors Square, PayPal Here, and Intel’s GoPayment. It is also looking to revolutionize mobile buying in general with PowaTag product. The company would not reveal the name of its investors, though it may be Wellington Management. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Cleversafe cooks up $55M for low-cost object storage targeting ‘big data’ needs

Cleversafe, a provider of low-cost data storage products, has raised $55 million in its fourth round of funding, which will help it further reach out to big data and cloud-focused businesses. Chicago-based Cleversafe’s flagship dsNet object storage systems protect data and metadata equally. Basically, it cuts up your data and distributes it evenly to help you make sure you never lose your data. Cleversafe claims it has shipped more than 200 petabytes of storage capacity since it was founded back in 2004. The new $55 million round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with participation New World Ventures. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Business intel startup Birst closes $38M to go international

Birst, a cloud company focused on business intelligence and visual analytics, has taken a $38 million cash infusion. This is the startup’s fifth round of institutional funding. The Series E was led by Sequoia Capital with participation from new investor Northgate Capital and existing investors Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and DAG Ventures. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

OpenStack advocate MorphLabs takes a small $10M fourth round for Asian expansion

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MorphLabs has announced it’s raised $10 million in its fourth round of funding — a relatively small amount given the late stage. MorphLabs makes OpenStack-integrated products for big-time players in the enterprise, including service providers. The company’s mCloud offering uses OpenStack, a cloud-based operating system, to bring software/hardware open and private cloud technologies to its customers. The Series D was led by Tallwood Management and Entropy Research Lab with participation from existing investor G2iG. This round brings the company’s funding to date to $22.5 million. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

Cloud Technology Partners get a $5M second round of funding

Cloud Technology Partners wants to help businesses not just move to the cloud, but build out their own personalized cloud system. The transition isn’t always the easiest, particularly for brick and mortar businesses. The company received $5 million in its second round of funding from Oak Investment Partners. The Boston-based company plans to use the funding for product development.

SocialChorus raises $2.5M

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Advocate marketing platform SocialChorus has just taken $2.5 million in its first round of funding. This round is SocialChorus’ first institutional funding and was led by Khlberg Ventures with participation from new investor Windforce Ventures. This brings the company’s total funding to date to $8 million. Advocate marketing involves roping a brand’s biggest fans into marketing efforts. SocialChorus’ clients include AT&T, Peet’s, Toyota, and Windows Phone, among other household names.

Collegefeed helps students find those elusive entry-level jobs with $1.8M in funding

Collegefeed received a $1.8 million seed round of funding today in order to help recent graduates find jobs in the tough market today. The specialized job board was created in May 2013 and invites both employers and prospectives to come together and build their brands. The funding comes from Accel Parnters, Mark Stevens of S-Cubed Capital, and other angel investors.

ChoreMonster gets $1.5M

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ChoreMonster has taken a $1.5 million round from Detroit Venture Partners, CincyTech, and other angels. If you grew up in non-digital days, you’ll remember those chore charts your mom(s) and/or dad(s) attempts to make you be a responsible household member. Remember the star stickers? Those were the days, man. ChoreMonster is basically an online version of that. Parents assign chores and award points; kids collect monsters are part of the game. Will all those bells and whistles make chores suck less? Time will tell.