TokBox, the Sequoia backed video chat startup, has closed a $10 million Series B round led by Bain Capital Ventures, with Sequoia also contributing. The round brings TokBox’s total funding to around $14 million. As part of the deal, Bain’s Scott Friend will join the company’s board.
TokBox offers a Flash-based video chat service that requires no extra plugins. The service has gotten rave reviews from a number of our readers for its ease of use. While the service offers basic social network functionality, there’s no account required to participate in a chat - users need only browse to the URL that gets assigned to each chat room.
Last month TokBox positioned itself to more directly take on traditional web chat and IM clients like AIM and Skype by releasing a new AIR desktop client.
Please register with all your buddies, and chat. It needs headcount as much as possible, say 300,000 is the milestone for next around funding or acquisition.
BP in the hizzaus y’all!!!!!
I have to believe that the simpler and easier websites make their ideas for everyone to use when first launched, the success rate of them coming back to use it will go way up. My first impression when I went there was that I will probably go back to use it some time. Its easy to get going.
Internet Submitter Awaits!
Thanks!
No extra plugin?It sounds really cool.When we reach a web,additional installation always crazy ourselves.If it is really easy-using and no-plugin,that is my choice of web-based chat room.
It’s coming along really well, can’t wait to see what’s next from TokBox.
Thats nice, but where does this company make money?
They tout it as free on their website, but I’m sure the bandwidth costs a bunch???
so cool…can be better if they make the videocam more social, something like user can use it from their own website or blog.
Doesnt Kyte already do this. Terrible domain name. Sounds like another spamplication.
Congrats to TokBox, they clearly need to spend more to catch up to us.
I tried it without the plugin and had problems with the quality. I contacted the person from tokbox that showed up as a contact two days in a row and got no response. I then emailed the company and told them and was told in a reply that this person was probably busy.
I use Skype and really have a problem justifying why I would tell a few hundred contacts to go to tokbox as I don’t see a single feature that’s different or better. I can send videomail with my built-in camara all day without any 3rd party software. I left messages to people that were not online and they never got them, just an email that they missed a message - Skype (and all other IM’s I am aware of) saves these and deliveres them when they come back online. The desktop plugin does not help, it’s enough to have one IM running for me.
I also question the investment/business model - $10M is a lot of money for a company that does nothing unique as I can see it and that’s going up against some Goliaths in a saturated market.
Why not include desktop sharing, now at least I can use it for client presentations, support etc?
All in all I don’t get the differentiators nor the value from either an investor perspective nor a user perspective.
Go BP, go…
I think it’s great news. I think the team is doing a number of innovative things, and it should be exciting to see what features they add to their API.
Congratulations again to the Tokbox team –
how about this site? the technology looks even more sophisticated
http://www.publicsquare.tv