Joost lands $45 Million in financing
Joost has just announced that five venture capital groups have invested a combined $45 million in the company. Each party has acquired a minority stake in the company. This funding will allow Joost to continue with product development and other needs.
For those who do not know, Joost is a video over the Internet company. They are most often compared to YouTube, which is now owned by Google.
“This funding represents a tremendous vote of confidence in Joost’s platform. 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.”
said Janus Friis, co-founder of Joost.
- Investors
- Index Ventures
- Sequoia Capital
- Li Ka Shing Foundation
- Viacom
- CBS Corporation
Seeing the likes of Viacom and CBS on this list will only further the problems YouTube is having with these two companies. As you may recall, several media companies are currently sueing YouTube to have their content removed from the video sharing service. As investors and content partners in Joost I don’t see any reason (short of Joost failing) for these two companies to let up on YouTube in regards to their content.
- Media contributions from CBS and Viacom
- CSI
- Survivor
- NCIS
- Numb3rs
- Fat Actress
- The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric
- Face the Nation
- The Early Show
- 48 Hours
- CBS Sunday Morning
- College Football Highlight Show
- NFL Today Hot Topic
- Game of the Week
- One2One
- Go Pro or Go Home
- Laguna Beach
- Beavis and Butthead
- Real world
- Punk’d
- My Super Sweet Sixteen
- Stella
- CCP’s
- Freak Show
Paramount Pictures (part of Viacom) will also be providing full length feature films from its catalog (old and new movies).
Things are really heating up in the online video market. Not only do we have Joost and YouTube but even the phone companies are launching IPTV services. If Joost can land top rated shows from the major networks and provide a reliable service (and a way to get the content to the TV without being a major pain) they can rule the online video marketplace.
I have a Joost invite myself but, my computer does not have the capability to run their client.