The mega rounds continue to drop, with enterprise-facing cloud storage company Box confirming that it has raised $100 million in fresh outside funds. TechCrunch reported and confirmed the funding in late November, meaning that Box took its time in disclosing the size of its new cash influx.
The round values Box in the neighborhood of $2 billion, meaning that the company sold around 5 percent of its equity in the deal.
Box, like Uber and Pinterest (and perhaps Snapchat shortly), have each raised huge sums in recent months, at valuations in the billions. Dropbox, a key competitor to Box, is said to be hunting for nine-figure funds with a valuation in the billions, as well.
As a company, Box has been almost magically well capitalized. As TechCrunch previously reported:
Box just raised $125 million in new funding last year, and another $25 million earlier this year. A new round would put Box’s funding at over $400 million total. Box famously turned down a $600 million acquisition offer from Citrix in 2011.
International
According to Box, the United States accounts for 60 percent of its total activity, meaning that the company’s user and customer base is largely domestic. But that could soon change, as Box stated in its announcement today that it has signed “commercial agreements” with Japanese companies to “catalyze” its introduction into that market. It hired Katsunori Furuichi there to head up its efforts. Furuichi was formerly the CEO of Verisign Japan.
In addition, Box is partnering with firms in Latin America and Australia. Those firms, in conjunction with DST Global, which invested into Facebook, and Coatue, a hedge fund with a newly minted $300 million growth fund, provided the new capital.
There is a huge value stack to be built on top of file storage, and Box is well aware of it.