So last week I wrote about MapR’s approach to Hadoop. MapR’s Jack Norris explained that the company is focused on improving the core Hadoop infrastructure rather than supporting Hadoop deployments with consulting services. And unlike Cloudera, MapR is keeping the hood closed on its proprietary Hadoop storage and MapReduce layers.

Looks like three top Silicon Valley venture cap firms agree with MapR’s direction. MapR, based in San Jose, Calif., announced it raised $20 million in a round of Series B funding led by Redpoint Ventures. Also taking part in this round of funding were Lightspeed Venture Partners and New Enterprise Associates. MapR says the latest funding will be used to “scale operations.”

For those of you keeping score at home, the new funding comes on top of the $9 million MapR raised prior to emerging from stealth mode in May. Cloudera, meanwhile, has raised over $35 million itself since last year, the latest a round of Series C funding totaling around $25 million from Meritech Capital Partners in October. Then there’s Hortonworks, the Yahoo spin-off, founded earlier this summer with an initial cash injection of $20 million or so from Benchmark Capital and Yahoo.

The long and the short of it is that there are now two credible horses (Cloudera and MapR) in the Hadoop distribution race with distinct business models (click here to read about the competing approaches here,) and potentially a third (though it is unclear if Hortonworks plans to release its own Hadoop distribution or stick mainly to services.) But the amount of funding the three start-ups have raised thus far represents just a drop in the potential Hadoop bucket.

Consider the use cases for Big Data analysis that Hadoop makes possible – and the financial impact they could have. In financial services, for example, Hadoop makes it possible for banks to more accurately assess credit risk by incorporating new sources of data and larger volumes of data. In retail and other industries, Big Data analysis can help streamline supply chains. Even the public sector could get in on the act, using Big Data to improve and better target government services.

As the use cases and potential financial impact of Hadoop reveal themselves, expect to see more funding flowing to companies like Cloudera and MapR that are building the Big Data infrastructure of the future. The Hadoop distribution horserace could get crowded.