Box Inc.

Box Inc. (formerly Box.net) is an online file sharing and personal cloud content management service for businesses. The company adopted a freemium business model, and provides up to 10 GB of free storage for personal accounts. A mobile version of the service is available for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, WebOS, and Windows Phone devices. The company is based in Los Altos, California. They currently offer 10 GB of free storage for personal use.

Business model
Box is a cloud computing business which provides file-sharing, collaborating, and other tools for working with files that are uploaded to its servers. Users can determine how their content can be shared with other users. Users may invite others to view and/or edit an account’s shared files, upload documents and photos to a shared files folder (and thus share those documents outside of Box), and give other users rights to view shared files.

Box offers 3 account types: Enterprise, Business and Personal. Depending on the type of account, Box has features such as unlimited storage, custom branding and administrative controls. Other systems, such as Google apps, NetSuite and Salesforce can be integrated with Box.

Box’s enterprise clients include GE, Schneider Electric, and Procter & Gamble.

OpenBox
In December 2007 the company announced OpenBox, which connects content from Box with other web-based applications and services. Included were online services EchoSign, Autodesk, Zoho, ThinkFree, Scribd, Picnik, Zazzle, Twitter and Myxer. Since then, OpenBox added NetSuite, Salesforce, Google Apps, FedEx, MindMeister, Fuze Meeting and others.

OpenBox allows developers to create services that interact with files on Box.com. The application programming interface is implemented over conventional XML.

Funding
Box received angel capital from Mark Cuban in 2005, then raised a Series A round of $1.5 million from Draper Fisher Jurvetson in 2006. In late 2007, it raised a Series B round of $6 million, and another $7.1 million in 2009 from U.S. Venture Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson, bringing total investment to $14.6 million.

In October 2009, Box acquired Increo Solutions, the developer of collaborative online document and media viewing tools Backboard and Embedit.in. As a result of this acquisition, Box launched two new features in January 2010: an integrated content viewer and the ability to embed these files anywhere on the web. As part of the acquisition, Increo’s CEO Kimber Lockhart joined Box and is now the Senior Director of Web Application Engineering.

In 2011, the company closed a $48 million funding round led by Meritech Capital Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, and Emergence Capital Partners. The 48 million included 10 million in debt financing from Hercules Technology Growth Capital. “There was no capital limit and we could’ve raised more,” said Mr. Levie. Later that year, Box closed an $81 million funding round with investors including SAP and salesforce.com. Revenues in 2011 were viewed by Will Smale of BBC News as being “not too shabby”, considering the company’s foundation date of 2005.

In mid-2012, Box raised $125 million from General Atlantic and some of the company’s previous backers, valuing Box at between $1.2 to 1.5 billion.

According to a public document filed in October 2013, the company will raise a new funding round of $100 million.

In January 2014, the company secretly filed for an initial public offering with the US Government under the JOBS Act. In March of 2014, the company released financial data as part of that process.

Reception
In 2009, the Company was awarded the Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal’s Emerging Tech award for the cloud computing category, and was a WebWare 100 Award winner in 2007 and 2008, and one of AlwaysOn’s “AO Top Private Companies” for 2007. Cofounders Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith were among the top five finalists in Business Week’s “Best Entrepreneurs 25 and Under” rankings for 2009. In 2009, Box was nominated “Best Enterprise Start-up” Crunchie In 2010, and was listed as one of the “Hottest Silicon Valley Companies” by Lead411.

The company’s CEO, Aaron Levie, published blog articles on TechCrunch. He spoke at industry events. The company’s CFO, Dylan Smith, was on an episode of the reality TV show Millionaire Matchmaker in 2010.