Box (company)


Box, Inc., is an American internet company based in Redwood City, California. The company focuses on cloud content management and file sharing service for businesses. Official clients and apps are available for Windows, macOS, and several mobile platforms. Box was founded in 2005.

History

Box was originally developed as a college project of Aaron Levie while he was a student of the University of Southern California in 2004. Levie left school to run the company full-time in 2005. Levie became CEO, while his childhood friend Dylan Smith became CFO.
In October 2009, Box made its first acquisition, buying Increo Solutions for its document collaboration and preview technology.
In July 2012, Box secured $125 million in a funding round led by growth equity firm General Atlantic, joined by investors Bessemer Venture Partners, DFJ Growth, New Enterprise Associates, Sapphire Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, and Social + Capital Partnership.
In December 2013, eight investors participated in a $100 million series F funding round. Investors included Coatue Management, DFJ Growth, Itochu Technology Ventures, Macnica Networks Corp., Mitsui & Co, Telefónica Digital, Telstra, and Telstra Ventures.
In July 2014, Box received $150 million from Coatue Management and TPG Capital in a series G funding round.
In November 2014, Box acquired two-man medical-imaging software startup MedXT for $3.84 million.
On January 23, 2015 Box held its initial public offering on the NYSE. The IPO price was $14.00. It opened at $20.20 and closed at $23.23. The IPO raised $175 million and established a market capitalization of about $1.6 billion.
In February 2015, Box acquired the company Airpost. Airpost is a cloud management service.
In January 2016, some Box employees moved into their new headquarters in downtown Redwood City, California.

Business model

Box is a cloud computing business which provides file sharing, collaborating, and other tools for working with files that are uploaded to its servers. Users can determine how their content can be shared with other users. Users may invite others to view and/or edit an account's shared files, upload documents and photos to a shared files folder, and give other users rights to view shared files.
Box offers three account types: Enterprise, Business and Personal. There are official clients offered for Windows and macOS, but not for Linux. A mobile version of the service is available for Android, BlackBerry 10, iOS, WebOS, and Windows Phone devices.
Box's enterprise clients include IBM, GE, Schneider Electric, and Procter & Gamble.
In December 2007 the company announced OpenBox 2, which allows developers to create services that interact with files on both Box.com and competing web-based applications and services. The application programming interface is implemented over conventional XML.

Events

BoxWorks

BoxWorks is an annual conference hosted by Box featuring presentations, feature announcements and working sessions to assist users.