TokBox Closes $4 Million in Funding Led by Sequoia Capital as it Aims to Make Easy Video Calling an Instant Reality
TokBox, a first-of-its-kind consumer video communication product that makes it effortless for anyone, anywhere to make a video call for free, today announced the closing of $4 million in a Series A round from Sequoia Capital and angel investors.
Founded by two young entrepreneurs Serge Faguet and Ron Hose, TokBox (www.tokbox.com/) has developed a product that allows people to easily talk face-to-face with anyone in the world in a single click. There's no registration, download, installation, configuration or any other hassle.
"We've designed TokBox to be a very easy means for video calling and messaging," said TokBox CEO Serge Faguet. "Our goal at TokBox is to make conversations online as rich an experience as the in-person communication we have offline."
"TokBox is capitalizing on a large market opportunity by making it easy for consumers around the world to adopt online video communication," said Sequoia Capital Partner Roelof Botha. "The company's innovation and focus on simplicity enhance the experience for the tens millions of consumers who have already adopted online video chat. And, perhaps more importantly, TokBox's ease-of-use will expand the market opportunity by enabling a brand new group of people to adopt online video chat as a means of communicating with their friends and family around the world."
Angel investors include the founders of YouTube, Netscape and Bebo; top executives at Slide, PayPal and Cisco; as well as the head of the graduate Computer Science program at Stanford University. The company will use the capital from its Series A to support rapid user growth, expand the team, and accelerate its efforts to simplify video communication.
Due to its broad applicability, TokBox has grown rapidly and is already being used in a variety of ways: from college students and their parents communicating face-to-face from around the world, to music artists speaking with their fans on MySpace, to software development teams collaborating remotely. In addition to usage on TokBox.com, users can add a video communication element by embedding TokBox on relevant applications like blogs, social networks, and commerce and community sites.
"Although the concept of live video conferencing has been around for a long time, it has yet to take off because existing solutions have been too complex for the end-user," said YouTube Co-Founder Jawed Karim. "TokBox is the first video communications product to eliminate this complexity, allowing millions of users around the world to easily have face-to-face video conversations."
ABOUT TOKBOX
TokBox is a first-of-its-kind consumer video communication service that helps people talk face-to-face with a single click. TokBox also lets users send videomails to anyone with an email address, and embed video communication into any website (e.g. blogs, social networks or dating sites). For more information, visit www.tokbox.com or follow product updates at www.tokbox.com/blog.About Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital provides venture capital funding to founders of startups who want to turn business ideas into companies. As the "Entrepreneurs Behind the Entrepreneurs", Sequoia Capital's Partners have worked with innovators such as Steve Jobs of Apple Computer, Larry Ellison of Oracle, Bob Swanson of Linear Technology, Sandy Lerner and Len Bozack of Cisco Systems, Dan Warmenhoven of Network Appliance, Jerry Yang and David Filo of Yahoo!, Jen-Hsun Huang of nVIDIA, Michael Marks of Flextronics, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen of YouTube and Dominic Orr and Keerti Melkote of Aruba Wireless Networks. To learn more about Sequoia Capital visit www.sequoiacap.com.
Contact:
Roelof Botha
SEQUOIA CAPITAL
botha@sequoiacap.com
