Box.net is getting serious about SharePoint with another $81m of funding

A couple of years ago it was funny to watch the cheeky advertising by Box.net, in which the startup attacked the giant SharePoint. But it turned out that Box.net can not only do a noisy PR, but also can effectively run its business and develop the high-quality product. This week the company raised another $81 million of investments from SAP and Salesforce, and its market value was estimated at $600 million. Box.net currently has 100 thousand customers (7 million users). 77% of Fortune 500 companies use Box.net. And this summer the startup succeeded in signing its biggest contract - with Procter & Gamble for 18,000 seats. Box.net is the mobile collaboration market leader according to Forrester. So what is the secret of their success?

It's very simple. The fact is that in 2005 the Box founders Aaron Levy and Dylan Smith started their business not in the garage, as recommended, but in their dorm room. Many people still create startups in garages and don't know that this method doesn't work as good as before.

So, now Box.net is already serious about taking on Microsoft, Oracle and IBM. It's not building just the SaaS collaboration service, but the developer platform and the ecosystem. It's even consulting and funding other startups that are developing add-ons for Box.net.

And today Box.net has increased the free limits. From now, the free acconts provide as much as 50GB of free space. A the max file size is increased from 25 to 100 MB.

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