Joyent News

Joyent Secures $85M in Venture Funding to Fuel Global Growth and Continued Innovation

January 23rd, 2012 by ginger

Capital infusion supports Joyent’s provision of global cloud services to enterprises and service providers

San Francisco—January 23, 2012—Joyent, a global provider of cloud computing software and services, today announced it has completed an $85 million funding round, with European group Weather Investment II providing the majority of the round. Weather II was advised by Accelero Capital, an investment and management group. Both Weather II and Accelero focus on telecommunication and related media and technology companies that clearly hold promise in the rapidly and profoundly changing telecom and enterprise markets worldwide.

Telefónica Digital, the growth arm of global telecom leader Telefónica, is also participating as a strategic investor. Cloud-based services are a key focus area for Telefónica’s new Digital unit, and Joyent’s technology expertise in this area will help Telefónica enhance its product offering.

Existing Joyent investors include El Dorado Ventures, Epic Ventures, Greycroft Partners, Intel Capital, and Liberty Global.

“We believe that Joyent’s unique approach to cloud and systems solutions provides an edge compared to other providers,” said Khaled Bichara, co-CEO of Accelero Capital. “We are delighted to make this strategic investment in a company that is providing solutions to some of the toughest problems in cloud computing, such as cloud performance, resiliency and security, thereby unleashing the full potential of the next generation of computing.”

“This investment is further proof of our ambition in the area of cloud services and is in line with our strategy of working with leaders like Joyent, which is poised to vastly improve the way computing is carried out worldwide,” said Matthew Key, Chairman & CEO, Telefónica Digital. “Joyent’s technology fits perfectly with technologies developed in-house and our cloud services model, and enables us to provide more competitive offerings to a broader range of customer segments.”

Throughout 2012 Joyent will roll out a collection of seamlessly connected high performance public clouds that serve global corporations with consistent computing services on every continent.

“Having worked with customers around the world, we see the demand for consistent global services regardless of how many countries our customers are operating in,” said David Young, CEO and founder of Joyent. “This funding will enable Joyent to build out a global compute offering to assist customers in expanding consistent software, support and services to their clients.”

About Joyent
Joyent is a global cloud computing and systems software provider that offers an integrated technology suite designed for enterprises and developers. JoyentCloud.com delivers public cloud services to some of the most innovative companies in the world, including LinkedIn, Gilt Groupe and Kabam. Node.js, the open source server-side JavaScript project owned and stewarded by Joyent, provides developers and enterprises such as Microsoft with the most powerful runtime for developing data-intensive, real-time apps. Joyent is also the key contributor to and sponsor of Joyent SmartOS, an open source project dedicated to the complete, modern operating system. SmartDataCenter orchestrates Joyent’s technologies into a cohesive, reliable and distributed system that can stand up to the compute demands of the modern world. A global ecosystem of leading technology partners assists Joyent in enabling customers to leverage the performance, scalability, reliability and security inherent in the company’s cloud solutions. For more information, visit http://www.joyent.com.

About Accelero Capital
Accelero Capital is an investment and management group focused on telecommunication, digital media  and technology. Accelero Capital`s management team has an unparalleled track record in strategic, operational and financial management. It leverages its expertise and sector know-how to identify high-growth assets with turnaround potential.  For more information write info@accelerocapital.com or visit http://www.accelerocapital.com.

About Weather Investment II
Weather Investment II is an experienced investor and strategic shareholder in telecommunications companies. Weather II notably owns an economic interest of about 20% in Vimpelcom, the world’s sixth largest mobile telecommunications group by subscribers.

About Telefónica Digital
Telefónica Digital is a global business division of Telefónica. Its mission is to seize the opportunities within the digital world and deliver new growth for Telefónica through research & development, venture capital, global partnerships and digital services such as cloud computing, mobile advertising, M2M and eHealth. Telefónica Digital will deliver these innovative products and services to Telefónica’s 300 million customers as well as leveraging the power of the internet to enter new markets. It is headquartered in London with regional centres in Silicon Valley, Sao Paolo, Spain and Tel Aviv. Jajah, Terra, Tuenti and giffgaff are all part of the Telefónica Digital group of companies.

Joyent Media Contact
Scott VanSickle
Hoffman PR
svansickle@hoffman.com
+1-408-975-3084

Weather Investment II Media Contact
Manal Abdel-Hamid
mabdelhamid@otelecom.com
+20122 215 6333

Telefónica Media Contact
Nick Wilkins
Director of Media Relations
nick.wilkins@o2.com
+44 7712 020937

The Wall Street Journal: The Daily Start-Up: Home Depot Buys Red Beacon In Newest Project

January 23rd, 2012 by carly

January 23, 2012 — In its first acquisition since 2006, Home Depot has acquired home services specialist Red Beacon, which has a software platform that lets pre-screened home service professionals–plumbers, painters, house cleaners and so on–bid for jobs. Home Depot will use Red Beacon to connect its own customers, which include both consumers and professionals.

The race to supply companies with the software they need to build an Amazon-style cloud service is heating up, with $85 million in new funding for Joyent. The company is one of a half dozen or so venture-backed companies selling software that enables companies to set up a cloud computing service. Read more

Portfolio.com: Joyent Shoots for “Star Alliance” of the Cloud

January 23rd, 2012 by carly

January 23, 2012 — David Young plans to use $85 million to build his cloud computing company into a global force.

A San Francisco company that provides cloud computing power for businesses has pulled in $85 million in funding and a partnership with one of the world’s largest telecommunications company.

“You need to think of this as almost a Star Alliance for the cloud,” Dave Young, chief executive of Joyent, said of his company’s deal with Telefonica Digital, which participated in the funding round. Spain’s Telefonica is the world’s third-largest telecom, and the investment from the company will give Joyent an alliance with a company that operates throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America. Read more

CNN Money: Venture capital deals

January 23rd, 2012 by carly

January 23, 2012 — Joyent, a San Francisco-based provider of cloud computing software and services, has raised $85 million in new VC funding. Weather Investment II led the round, and was joined by Telefonica Digital and return backers El Dorado Ventures, Epic Ventures, Greycroft Partners, Intel Capital, and Liberty Global. The company previously raised over $27 million. Read more

Business Insider: This Company Just Raised $85 Million To Beat Back Amazon

January 23rd, 2012 by carly

January 23, 2012 — Amazon Web Services isn’t the only cloud computing game in town, and one of its competitors just got a lot stronger: Joyent has rasied $85 million from a surprising source — Spanish phone company Telefonica. European private equity firm Weather Investment II also participated.

Joyent actually began offering its public cloud service a few months before Amazon, according to CEO David Young — “although we didn’t call it cloud.”

While AWS is used by a lot of high-profile startups, Joyent has more than 30,000 customers, including big names like LinkedIn, gaming service Kabam, and one of the big airline reservation booking systems, Sabre. (It also powered Twitter in the early days.) Read more