Cloud Capital, a new startup founded by repeat SaaS entrepreneurs, is launching out of stealth with $7.7 million in funding to help CFOs take back financial control of their cloud infrastructure.
In a world where AI is accelerating cloud usage faster than finance teams can keep up, Cloud Capital is building the first FinTech platform for cloud: enabling companies to forecast usage, unlock savings, and eliminate financial risk from long-term cloud commitments.
The company is founded by Edward Barrow (CEO), Spencer Pingry (CTO), and Zack Liscio (CPO), a trio of serial founders who’ve each built and sold successful SaaS companies across the US and Europe, including Idio, Zaius, and Naytev. The team later joined forces at Optimizely, where they saw how complex cloud cost management becomes at scale, and the need for a fundamentally new, finance-led approach. Between them, they’ve managed more than $500 million in cloud spend, and have built Cloud Capital to solve the problems they experienced first-hand.
“We believe cloud infrastructure is the largest broken market in tech,” said Edward Barrow, Co-founder & CEO. “We’ve been in the driving seat; we’ve built the forecasts and we’ve lived the pain. We built Cloud Capital to give CFOs the same level of control over cloud that they have across the rest of the P&L.”
The AI Boom Is Fueling a $344B Cloud Cost Crisis for CFOs
Cloud infrastructure is now the fastest-growing cost in tech, and AI is accelerating the problem. As companies race to train and deploy AI models, cloud usage is skyrocketing, driving cloud spend to a $344 billion run-rate in Q4 2024¹ and growing over 20% year-over-year. At this pace, cloud costs are projected to surpass $1 trillion by 2030.
To keep up, hyperscale cloud providers are massively expanding capacity. In 2024 alone, global data center capital expenditures jumped 51% to $455 billion², with much of that investment going into AI-optimized infrastructure. But this expansion only works if enterprise customers commit to long-term contracts - pushing financial risk down to the buyer.
For CFOs, it’s a perfect storm: cloud is now the second-largest cost after headcount - typically 6% to 12% of revenue in SaaS businesses, and as high as 30% to 40% in AI-native companies³. With the rapid growth of these investments, 27% of companies are now exceeding their cloud budgets⁴, and up to 40% of potential savings remain unrealized². Responsibility for managing cloud costs often falls on engineering teams, yet the financial accountability lies between CFOs and CTOs, neither of whom have the tools to forecast or manage these expenses with confidence.
“Cloud has always been a massive cost center but, with AI workloads driving usage through the roof, it’s become the fastest growing and least controlled line item on the P&L,” said Zack Liscio, Co-founder & CPO. “CFOs are being asked to approve major cloud investments without the visibility or control to manage the risk. We built Cloud Capital to give them the tools they need to forecast spend, manage risk, and make smarter decisions.”
Beyond Optimization: A FinTech Platform for Cloud Financial Control
“Cloud Capital is shifting the dynamic and giving finance leaders the tools to run cloud like any other major investment. Unlike traditional optimization tools, Cloud Capital takes a "100% FinTech" approach to cloud infrastructure, treating it like a financial asset, not just an engineering cost, precisely quantifying and pricing commitment risk based on our proprietary, free-to-use forecasting platform,” said Spencer Pingry, Co-founder & CTO. “Other tools help engineers save money. We help CFOs manage risk. We’re building financial infrastructure - a control layer for cloud that gives companies a new way to finance and optimize cloud like any other major investment.”
Cloud Capital’s AI-powered platform combines real-time usage data, engineering plans, and financial models to forecast spend and identify safe, commitment-free savings. For companies ready to commit, Cloud Capital goes further - underwriting the financial risk of long-term cloud contracts and absorbing liability on the customer’s behalf.
Massive Early Demand Fuels Rapid Fundraising
Cloud Capital quietly raised an initial $2.3 million pre-seed round led by Connect Ventures alongside a number of strategic, renowned FinTech angels. Just three months later, after significant early customer traction and overwhelming investor interest, the company raised a $5.4 million seed round led by Backed Ventures and Middlegame Ventures, with additional backing from DFF Ventures.
“Cloud Capital is tackling one of the most urgent and overlooked problems in tech: the lack of financial control in cloud infrastructure,” said Rory Stirling, Partner at Connect Ventures. “We backed this team because they’ve lived the problem, and they’re building with a clarity and conviction that only comes from first-hand experience. They’re not just optimizing costs, they’re reshaping the financial infrastructure of the cloud era.”
Already Live, Powering High-Growth Startups
Now out of stealth, Cloud Capital is already live with dozens of high-growth startups in AI, FinTech, and Cybersecurity, helping CFOs in North America and Europe forecast usage, identify savings, and manage commitment risk, without being forced into rigid, long-term cloud contracts.