Cloudera said it raised $65 million in a deal led by Accel Partners and supported by Greylock Partners, Ignition Partners, In-Q-Tel and Meritech Capital Partners. The investment will fund global expansion, and the company announced it will establish a European headquarters in the United Kingdom in the first quarter of next year.

The innovation now taking place in big data is the result of simpler and more efficient ways to use and manipulate large volumes of information. It may soon stem from “actionability.”

Accel Partners has upped its bet on Big Data, announcing this morning that it has dedicated $100 million from its various funds to invest in startups focused on Big Data problems. “What we’re seeing here is a real opportunity to build companies up and down the data stack,” says Ping Li (pictured), one of several [...]

Cloudera Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif.-based company that provides Apache Hadoop-based data management software and services, has raised a $40 million Series D round of funding. Ignition Partners led the round, which also included Accel Partners, Greylock Partners, Meritech Capital Partners and In-Q-Tel. Cloudera has now raised $76 million in total funding, having most recently [...]

Cloudera, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based start-up that provides Apache Hadoop-based data software and services, has raised $25 million in a third round of financing. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Meritech Capital Partners led the Series C round, which included participation from existing investors Accel Partners and Greylock Partners. Cloudera has now raised a total of $36 million.

Due to popular demand, we’re making the full list of winners of the VCJ 20 Most Promising Startups available. See my original post for the genesis of the project and how we chose the winners.

Venture Capital Journal subscribers can read in-depth profiles of all the winners here.

Not a subscriber? Go here for subscription and reprint information.

And now—drum roll, please—here are the top 20 most promising startups that raised seed or venture funding in 2009, as chosen by the writers and editors of Venture Capital Journal. (Full list after the jump)

As journalists, we’re constantly second-guessing investments made by VCs. With that in mind, the writers and editors of Venture Capital Journal decided to find out if we’re are really as smart as we think are, or are as dumb as rocks when it comes to picking good deals.

The result is the VCJ 20, which lists the 20 most promising startups that received seed or Series A financing in 2009.

The goal of this project was to create a list of truly promising companies, no matter who founded them or who their backers were. VCJ focused on five factors when rating each company: potential market size, quality of the team, technology edge, business model, and exit potential.

I’m proud to announce that the company at the top of VCJ’s list is Cloudera, which offers consulting services and is building tools around Hadoop software and is backed by Accel Partners and Greylock Partners.

Cloudera, a Burlingame, Calif.-based provider of services and support for open-source software Hadoop, has raised $6 million in Series B funding. Greylock Partners led the round, and was joined by return backer Accel Partners. Cloudera previously raised $5 million. www.cloudera.com

Cloudera, a Burlingame, Calif.-based provider of services and support for open-source software Hadoop, has raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Accel Partners.