Internet television service Joost has raised $45 million in venture funding from five companies.
The companies that have invested in Joost include Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Li Ka Shing Foundation, CBS and Viacom.
“This funding represents a tremendous vote of confidence in Joost’s platform,” said Janus Friis, co-founder of Joost. “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.”
Each company involved has invested a minority percentage in Joost. The funding will help to speed product development and service offerings. Previously its founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstom who also founded Skype funded the company.
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.”
What sets Joost apart from other online video sites such as YouTube is that their focus has been on professional content rather than user generated videos.
The company has made content deals with Sony, CBS, Turner Broadcasting and Warner Brothers. Those partnerships have made it easier for Joost to attract other content providers.
Mr. Li Ka-shing, chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Limited and Cheung Kong Holdings 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.”
