Box.net Raises Another $48M for Cloud Collaboration
Adding one more link to the cloud growth chain, business-focused cloud file storage and collaboration service Box.net raised $48 million in a Series D funding round. The sum comes in addition to $30 million Box.net already raised in venture capital, and will probably be used to further expand the company’s supported marketplace.
“…co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie tells Fast Company that enough people in the business world are excited about what they’re building (5 million to be exact) that it’s time to set their sites on the international market. Or, as we like to say, execute on its plan for global domination (of the online collaboration space, at least).”
Andreessen Horowitz is among the investors who participated in the funding round, and general manager Ben Horowitz said in an interview Box.net is leading the “the consumerization of enterprise software.” This transformation of business-oriented software into more easily handled applications running on the cloud will take on the market within 5 years, according Horowitz, who noted this in context to the investment.
All Things D covered Box.net’s funding round more extensively, and reports the round included $10 million in debt financing, which can make it cheaper to pay for Box.net’s infrastructure.
“Meritech Capital Partners is leading Box’s Series D round, with Andreessen Horowitz and Emergence Capital Partners joining prior investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Scale Venture Partners and US Venture Partners. The round includes $10 million in debt financing from Hercules TGC.”
In addition to the funding, Box.net had another recent update. The company added some new and much-requested features to its iOS app. These include video support via Apple’s Dock Connector to VGA Adapter and others, support for AirPrint and new security options.
Box.net is working hard on pushing the personal cloud management front, especially from the consumer end. Box.net is very easy to use and offers quite a bit of features (including the newly released photo sharing feature), but all its hard work doesn’t mean it’s have to face some serious competition. Dropbox also had some updates, including the launch of version 1.0 and integration with Vitamin-R, a productivity tool suit.
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