Joost Secures $45 Million In Additional Funding

What do Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, CBS Corp, Viacom, and Li Ka-shing (a really rich Chinaman) have in common? They all bet their pants on Joost. $45 million in slacks, as of early May.

Actually, high-priced fabrics weren’t part of the bargain. (I’m not so sure that’s the right word to use in this context, but anyhow.) Just paper. Lots of it. Is it just me or does it seem like Joost has been hogging headline space quite a bit as of late?

Forty-five million isn’t the biggest infusion ever to be seen by a startup, but neither is it the smallest. Some might be wondering, though, why – particularly following the announcement of the addition of quite a few “blue chip” advertisers to the Joost roll – the company is in need of so many big bills. My guess? Because it’s going to have to pay quite a few big bills shortly. Joost received funding early on, but clearly a big debut calls for a big investment, one made either by inside or outside forces. For some strange reason it’s hard to imagine Joost’s founders paying out of their own pockets.

Joost will be launching in a few days. It’s currently in a beta reserved only for those lucky enough to receive invitations from the web of reviewers that has grown ever so slowly over the past few months. Since Janus and Niklas have managed to win over many big name advertisers to start, it’s very likely that the company wants only to make the biggest of splashes with the service. Jumping straight into a free public offering out of a closed circle of invitations (similar to the system employed by Google for Gmail’s relatively unique debut) sounds like the right way make a big bang.

So, anyone out there still thinking Joost’s going to flop? I’ll be honest. For a while, I remained rather skeptical about the whole venture. Now, however, with the backing of so many, the service is certainly destined for success – barring any monstrous roadblocks, of course. It won’t hit the big big time, at least not yet. That fate will be a possibility when Joost finds its way to viewers’ living rooms and television screens. For now, it’s only the PC crowd that’s going to enjoy the on-demand IPTV. Hopefully, the team behind the project is working to bridge that gap this very moment.

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