Five leading companies invest in Joost

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent
Joost, the broadcast-quality Internet television service, has announced that five selected parties have collectively invested approximately $45 million in the company.

Each party invested in a minority percentage of the company. This funding will enable Joost (www.joost.com) to accelerate product development, global expansion, localization, and service offerings. Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Li Ka Shing Foundation, CBS Corporation and Viacom Participate in Round.

Founded in January 2006 by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, Joost is powered by a secure, efficient, Internet platform that enables premium interactive, advertising-supported, video experiences while providing copyright protection for content owners and creators. Joost can be accessed with a broadband Internet connection and offers content to viewers for free.

"This funding represents a tremendous vote of confidence in Joost's platform, We've carefully selected these investors from a variety of interested parties, as they are best-in-class in their respective arenas and bring unique assets to Joost that will enable us to significantly accelerate growth and development of the Company." said Janus Friis, co-founder of Joost.

Index Ventures, a leading European venture capital firm, which invests in impactful technologies that have global reach, led the round with Sequoia Capital, the premier venture capital firm in the world. Sequoia Capital has been the first investor and business partner in companies that make-up 10% of the NASDAQ's value. In combination, Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital bring unrivaled expertise and alliances in Europe, Asia and North America.

Danny Rimer, general partner of Index Ventures said, "We are excited to be working with Niklas and Janus once again as we see the same ground-breaking potential in Joost that we saw in Skype. By leveraging proven P2P architecture and assembling a world class management team, they have made a powerful idea simple and brought new services to market in record time. Our investment in Joost signals Index Ventures continued commitment to investing in impactful technologies."

Roelof Botha, general partner, Sequoia Capital, added, "Feature length video on the Internet has been long on promise and short on delivery for some time. Full screen commercial content delivered online has simply not been compelling for the viewer and has been far too costly for the content owners. Joost allows content owners to reach audiences of any size at any time where the viewer can "lean back" to enjoy an immersive yet interactive video experience. At the same time, Joost enables brand marketers to efficiently deliver precisely targeted and measurable advertisements. This ability poises the company to expand the video distribution business and capture an enormous market opportunity."

Li Ka-shing, chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Limited and Cheung Kong Holdings, invested in Joost through his charitable foundation, the Li Ka Shing Foundation. Li is a valued partner in Asia. Joost expects to work with Li and his respective affiliated companies, to expand its distribution in China and other parts of Asia.

Li Ka-shing stated, "We were excited about the opportunity to invest in Niklas and Janus. With the quality, content, speed and usability of Joost's platform, and the community-targeted service offerings, we expect Joost will revolutionize the Internet television market."