Joost boosts its finances

Television internet service, Joost has secured a collective investment of $45 million in the company.

The company says the funding will enable Joost to "accelerate product development, global expansion, localization, and service offerings."

Janus Friis, co-founder of Joost, said: "“This funding represents a tremendous vote of confidence in Joost’s platform. We’ve carefully selected these investors from a variety of interested parties, as they are best-in-class in their respective arenas and bring unique assets to Joost that will enable us to significantly accelerate growth and development of the company."

The investors include venture capital firms Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital. Danny Rimer, general partner of Index Ventures said: "We are excited to be working with Niklas and Janus once again as we see the same ground-breaking potential in Joost that we saw in Skype."

Li Ka-shing, chairman of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings, has invested in Joost through his charitable foundation, the Li Ka Shing Foundation. Joost expects to work with Li and his respective affiliated companies, to expand its distribution in China and other parts of Asia.

CBS Corporation and Viacom are also content partners, providing channels and programming on Joost.