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The US$ 48 million Box.net picked up in funding six months ago doesn't appear to be enough for the cloud-based content management provider. The company is now after another US$ 35 million. So far, they've landed US$ 18.6 of it.
The Demand For Managing Content via the Cloud
In April, Box closed a record first quarter, announcing a tripling of revenues and another 500,000 users on its platform, bringing the total user base to 6 million. The revenues announced followed on the heel of Box's February's Series D funding of US$ 48 million from Andreessen-Horowitz, Emergence Capital Partners, Meritech Capital Partners and prior investors. A nice little sum to continue developing its mobile portfolio, something Box CEO Aaron Levie has said is the future of content management.
Earlier this month, Box came out with new native applications for Android and Blackberry Playbook tablets, and a web-based HTML5 version of their apps for any HTML5-compliant mobile browser.
The Bleeding Edge Requires Greater Funding
But there's more than building mobile apps in Box's roadmap and a new funding attempt demonstrates that clearly. This time, Box went for an additional US$35 million. What to do with all that money? According to Forbes,
Levie says he will use the influx of cash to build out infrastructure, support the company’s data centers and ramp up its sales efforts.
Levie sees Box on the bleeding edge of the transition from traditional on premise enterprise software to a cloud-based model and he intends on ensuring Box is the best you can get.
Unfortunately, Box didn't get the full US$ 35 million he seeks, at least not yet. So far, Box has picked up US$ 18.6 million, still a nice little sum, and enough, we are sure, to keep the ball rolling.
