Box.net Raised Record $48 Million

Box.net has raised $48 million in additional capital to transform how organizations ranging from SMBs to large enterprises share and manage business information in the cloud.

Meritech Capital Partners led the Series D round, with new investment firms Andreessen Horowitz and Emergence Capital Partners joining previous investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Scale Venture Partners and US Venture Partners to fuel the next stage of Box’s growth in the enterprise.

Box finished 2010 with over 5 million users and 3.4X business revenue growth, driven by adoption of its cloud content management platform by enterprise customers like DreamWorks, Cisco and Dell. 60,000 companies, including 73% of the Fortune 500, use Box to share, access and collaborate on business content online, as well as from iPads, iPhones and Android devices. The company began the year by unveiling a new version of its service, bringing enhanced collaboration and real-time capabilities to users, along with a simplified user interface.

"With this new capital and our current momentum, Box is positioned to redefine an industry, much as Salesforce.com has done for CRM and NetSuite for ERP," said Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO, Box. "We want to bring Box’s cloud content management to businesses of all sizes, all over the world; we’ll aggressively outperform legacy software solutions on cost, flexibility, user experience, and speed of innovation, while pushing on our freemium business model to make it incredibly easy for individuals and companies alike to adopt Box."

Over the past year, Box has brought on talent from enterprise and technology firms Salesforce.com, Google, Oracle, EMC, and Intuit, and with this new capital, the company will continue to hire aggressively to double its team of 140 employees over the next 12-18 months. Box will also invest substantially in expanding its mobile platform and partner ecosystem; the company has seen 400,000 app downloads for iOS and Android, and features more than 150 integrated partner applications such as Salesforce, Google Apps and NetSuite in the Box Apps Marketplace. Given increasing demand for Box’s cloud content management worldwide – businesses outside the US account for 15% of Box’s customer base – Box will significantly increase international capabilities in 2011. The financing includes $38 million in equity from the new and existing investors, along with a $10M commitment from Hercules TGC.

"Cloud adoption in the enterprise is inevitable as IT leaders look to support their organizations with new solutions that address today’s problems and anticipate tomorrow’s," said Ben Horowitz, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. "Box has proven that it has the vision and the execution track record to be a leader in the new wave of enterprise solutions, and this infusion of capital will position the company for an explosive year."

"Box has already inspired millions of individuals and tens of thousands of businesses to rethink the way they share and manage content," said George Bischof, managing director at Meritech Capital. "With this round of funding, Box is positioned to be the clear leader in cloud content management by continuing to challenge the enterprise software status quo with rapid, disruptive innovation and unparalleled user experience."

"Content management and collaboration are core needs of every single business in the world, and unlike legacy solutions, Box can scale to meet the demands of organizations ranging from SMBs to Fortune 500s," said Jason Green, partner at Emergence Capital. "The global market potential for Box is massive, and by continuing to push its viral freemium model and investing aggressively in the platform, Box will be a leader in the cloud content management market."