TokBox Closes $4 Million in Funding Led by Sequoia As It Aims to Make Easy Video Calling an Instant Reality

Other Early Investors Include Founders of YouTube, Netscape and Bebo;

Company Sets Sights on an Innovative Way for People To Communicate

'Face-to-Face'

    SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- TokBox, a first-of-its-kind
 consumer video communication product that makes it effortless for anyone,
 anywhere to make a video call for free, today announced the closing of $4
 million in a Series A round from Sequoia Capital and angel investors.
     Founded by two young entrepreneurs Serge Faguet and Ron Hose, TokBox
 (http://www.tokbox.com) has developed a product that allows people to
 easily talk face-to-face with anyone in the world in a single click.
 There's no registration, download, installation, configuration or any other
 hassle.
     "We've designed TokBox to be a very easy means for video calling and
 messaging," said TokBox CEO Serge Faguet. "Our goal at TokBox is to make
 conversations online as rich an experience as the in-person communication
 we have offline."
     "TokBox is capitalizing on a large market opportunity by making it easy
 for consumers around the world to adopt online video communication," said
 Sequoia Capital Partner Roelof Botha. "The company's innovation and focus
 on simplicity enhance the experience for the tens millions of consumers who
 have already adopted online video chat. And, perhaps more importantly,
 TokBox's ease-of-use will expand the market opportunity by enabling a brand
 new group of people to adopt online video chat as a means of communicating
 with their friends and family around the world."
     Angel investors include the founders of YouTube, Netscape and Bebo; top
 executives at Slide, PayPal and Cisco; as well as the head of the graduate
 Computer Science program at Stanford University. The company will use the
 capital from its Series A to support rapid user growth, expand the team,
 and accelerate its efforts to simplify video communication.
     Due to its broad applicability, TokBox has grown rapidly and is already
 being used in a variety of ways: from college students and their parents
 communicating face-to-face from around the world, to music artists speaking
 with their fans on MySpace, to software development teams collaborating
 remotely. In addition to usage on TokBox.com, users can add a video
 communication element by embedding TokBox on relevant applications like
 blogs, social networks, and commerce and community sites.
     "Although the concept of live video conferencing has been around for a
 long time, it has yet to take off because existing solutions have been too
 complex for the end-user," said YouTube Co-Founder Jawed Karim. "TokBox is
 the first video communications product to eliminate this complexity,
 allowing millions of users around the world to easily have face-to-face
 video conversations."
     About TokBox
     TokBox is a first-of-its-kind consumer video communication service that
 helps people talk face-to-face with a single click. TokBox also lets users
 send videomails to anyone with an email address, and embed video
 communication into any website (e.g. blogs, social networks or dating
 sites). For more information, visit www.tokbox.com or follow product
 updates at www.tokbox.com/blog.
     About Sequoia Capital
     Since 1972, Sequoia Capital has provided startup venture capital to
 visionaries who want to turn ideas into enduring companies. As the
 "Entrepreneurs Behind the Entrepreneurs," Sequoia Capital partners have
 worked with such innovators as Sandy Lerner and Len Bozack of Cisco
 Systems, Jerry Yang and David Filo of Yahoo!, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of
 Google, Dan Warmenhoven of Network Appliance, T.J. Rodgers of Cypress
 Semiconductor, Steve Jobs of Apple Computer, and Larry Ellison of Oracle.
 The companies organized by Sequoia Capital now account for about 12% of the
 value in the NASDAQ.
 
 

SOURCE TokBox