Internet television service Joost has announced that five selected parties have collectively invested approximately $45 million in the company.
The news comes just a week after the company, set up by the founders of Skype, was launched.
Index Ventures, a European capital firm, Sequoia Capital, which has invested in Yahoo! and YouTube have taken small minority stakes in the company. CBS and Viacom are also investing and providing channels and programming on Joost.
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. Joost expects to work with Mr. Li and his respective affiliated companies to expand its distribution in China and other parts of Asia.
Janus Friis, co-founder of Joost, said: “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.”
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