NATIONAL HARBOR, Md., Jan. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Cloudforce, a Maryland-based frontier AI firm, today announced the closing of a $10 million Series A funding round led by Owl Ventures, the largest EdTech-focused VC fund in the world. The round also includes strategic participation from M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund—an investment that unlocks direct access to Microsoft's enterprise sales organization and product teams, and underscores the tech giant's robust endorsement of Cloudforce's flagship platform, nebulaONE®.
This capital injection comes amidst a period of explosive growth for Cloudforce. nebulaONE now serves over 3 million users across 90 institutions globally—including the University of Oxford, UCLA, University of Maryland, and London Business School—with the company now deploying to several new organizations every week. The funding will accelerate the global expansion of nebulaONE, extending its mission to provide secure, equitable "AI for All" to students, faculty, and researchers worldwide, while rapidly scaling operations in healthcare—where the company has already landed its first half-dozen customers following HIPAA certification earlier this year—and the broader public sector.
Cloudforce's nebulaONE has emerged as the definitive solution for institutions grappling with the complexities of generative AI adoption. Built exclusively on Microsoft Azure, the platform offers a secure, "bring-your-own-model" interface that allows organizations to deploy top-tier AI models—from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and more—within their own private cloud tenants. This architecture solves the critical challenges of data sovereignty, privacy compliance (FERPA, HIPAA, GDPR), and cost control that have previously stalled AI rollout in regulated industries.
"We're interested in the way nebulaONE brings together accessibility, security, and flexibility for users," said Alwyn Collinson, Head of the AI Competency Centre at the University of Oxford, which began piloting nebulaONE just before the Fall Semester. "At Oxford, we see AI not as a tool of the future but as a capability that needs to be deployed responsibly in the present." The main-campus instance of nebulaONE was deployed quickly following the success of a separate pilot at Oxford's Saïd Business School over the summer.
"At Cloudforce, we believe the latest and most capable AI models shouldn't be a luxury reserved for the few who can afford hundreds a month in subscriptions, or are otherwise willing to trade away their private data for access. With the support of Owl Ventures and M12, Microsoft's Venture fund, we are aggressively expanding our footprint to ensure that institutions—whether in London, Los Angeles, or Auckland—can rapidly deploy a private AI environment that empowers their people with equitable access to every AI model, without compromising their data. We are building the infrastructure that will power the next decade of discovery, and at a cost no other platform can offer."
— Husein Sharaf , Founder & CEO, Cloudforce
The involvement of Owl Ventures highlights the unique position Cloudforce holds in the EdTech ecosystem. Unlike use-case-specific tools that offer niche solutions, nebulaONE provides the foundational infrastructure for entire universities to adopt AI at scale.
"We constantly scour the globe for companies that are not just building tools, but are fundamentally rewiring how education systems operate. Cloudforce has cracked the code on scaling AI infrastructure in a way that satisfies the rigorous security demands of top-tier universities while delivering a user experience that students and faculty love. The numbers speak for themselves: over ninety institutions, double-digit quarterly revenue growth, and a sales velocity that's accelerating—not slowing. We are thrilled to partner with Husein and the team to bring this secure innovation to millions more learners worldwide."
— Lyman Missimer , Investor, Owl Ventures
For Microsoft, the investment via M12 solidifies a longstanding partnership. Cloudforce was recently named Microsoft's 2025 Education Partner of the Year— standing out amongst over a half a million partners worldwide—a testament to their alignment with Microsoft's vision for responsible AI.
"Cloudforce has demonstrated an exceptional ability to leverage the Microsoft Azure ecosystem to solve last-mile delivery challenges for enterprise AI. Their nebulaONE platform transforms powerful raw models into secure, compliant, and deployable business assets for the public sector. Our investment reflects our confidence in Cloudforce's technical rigor and their critical role in driving meaningful AI adoption in education and healthcare that will extend to large organizations worldwide."
— Michael Stewart , Managing Partner, M12 (Microsoft's Venture Fund)
Cloudforce's nebulaONE is currently deployed across the US, Canada, UK, EU, Australia and New Zealand. With this Series A, Cloudforce plans to significantly ramp hiring in 2026, launch new vertical-specific AI agents for education and healthcare workflows, and expand into the broader public sector. Their unique business model of wrapping AI platform deployment with expert consulting, organizational change management, and forward-deployed engineers has proven both effective and repeatable, resulting in a noteworthy 100% subscriber retention rate in 2025.
Media Contact: Arija Rahman, [email protected], 202-803-6500
About Cloudforce
As Microsoft's 2025 Education Partner of the Year and 2024 Supplier of the Year, Cloudforce specializes in deploying secure AI solutions for regulated industries. Their flagship product, nebulaONE®, is the leading AI platform for higher education, serving 3+ million users across over 90 organizations worldwide. For more information, visit www.gocloudforce.com and www.nebulaone.ai.
About Owl Ventures
Owl Ventures is the largest venture capital fund in the world focused on the education technology market with over $2.2 billion in assets under management. The Silicon Valley-based firm invests in the world's leading education technology companies across the education spectrum encompassing PreK-12, higher education, future of work, and the intersection of EdTech with healthcare and other major industries. The firm has backed seven unicorns and companies serving more than 630 million users across 241 countries. For more information, visit www.owlvc.com.
About M12
M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund, invests in innovative enterprise software and hardware companies globally, with a specific focus on applied AI, business applications, infrastructure, and security. M12 offers portfolio companies unparalleled access to Microsoft's ecosystem, global distribution channels, and Go-To-Market resources. For more information, visit www.m12.vc.
SOURCE Cloudforce
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