Box Secures $100M in New Funding for Japan Expansion

Cloud storage and file sharing service Box has secured $100 million in new funding from new strategic partners to help with international expansion.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the new funding values the company at about $2 billion, adding that the company declined to comment on the possibility of an initial public offering (IPO). Other publications say an IPO is coming in early 2014.

Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie said in a blog post yesterday that Box is “working to support and reach enterprises everywhere in the world.”

“Today, the service is translated into 13 languages beyond English — with many more to come — and we’re used by millions of individuals at businesses around the globe,” he said. “In fact, users outside the US account for roughly 40 percent of our activity.”

Levie noted that Box plans to open a new office in Japan. “As evidenced by the dramatic growth of Salesforce.com, Google Apps, and other cloud solutions in Japan ($3B will be spent on cloud solutions by 2017), there’s an incredible wave of IT transformation occurring.”

He added that Katsunori Furuichi, the recent president and chief executive officer of Verisign Japan, will lead Box’s efforts in the country.

Box recently acquired technology behind a company called dLoop last month to extend controls for enterprise admins looking to further content safeguards.

The file sync and share cloud space has grown more competitive recently with some vendors unafraid of pointing out the flaws of their rivals. Ted Hulsy, vice president of marketing at eFolder, which provides cloud data protection and file sync offerings, took a shot at Dropbox, a main competitor in the space, this week, claiming that Dropbox for Business is still missing several features for enterprises.

Teaser: Box Channel Sales Vice President Chris Penner will be speaking with Talkin’ Cloud next week regarding upcoming channel news. Keep checking back for updates.