Dropbox collects US$250M in new funding
Dropbox, the cross-platform, cloud-based storage service with 45 million users, has raised US$250 million in a second round of funding.
The money will go to helping it accelerate growth, make acquisitions, pursue strategic partnerships and increase headcount, said the San Francisco-based company in a statement Tuesday.
The amount was raised in a second round of funding led by Index Ventures with participation from new investors Benchmark Capital, Goldman Sachs, Greylock Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, RIT Capital Partners and Valiant Capital Partners. Dropbox now has a total capital of US$257.2 million.
Drew Houston, co-founder and CEO of Dropbox, said in the statement: "Our goal has always been to build a service that hundreds of millions of people would love and trust. We're inspired by the consumers and businesses who depend on Dropbox, and we will continue to make sure that the world's devices, services, and apps work together seamlessly."
The company, which was founded in 2007, also announced that it currently has 45 million users in 175 countries saving one billion files every three days.
According to a Forbes report Tuesday, Apple and its late CEO Steve Jobs wanted to buy Dropbox for a nine-digit sum back in late 2009, an offer Dropbox turned down. Apple launched its own iCloud service in June.
Meanwhile, Dropbox competitor Box.net last week ended a round of capital expansion with US$81 million, bringing the total funding to US$162 million.