Popular Open Source Sync and Share Start-up ownCloud Closes $2.5 Million Seed Round

General Catalyst Partners leads round with current and new investors

LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ownCloud Inc., the company behind the world's most popular open source file sync and share software, announced today the closing of a second seed round, led by current investor General Catalyst Partners, a growth equity and venture capital firm investing in exceptional entrepreneurs.

“We were very encouraged that many of our current investors – including General Catalyst – were so impressed by our momentum that they came to us for this round”

The Lexington, Mass.-based company will use the funds to further expand its more than 70-partner strong channel, aggressively expand its large enterprise and education customer base and support service providers who implement file sync and share based on ownCloud.

The company also announced that General Catalyst Managing Director Larry Bohn will join the company's board of directors.

Unlike simple apps like Dropbox and Box, which store data at remote third-party data centers, the ownCloud server is deployed on a company's or trusted service provider's servers, seamlessly integrating with existing security, storage, monitoring and reporting tools. With more than 650,000 users world-wide, ownCloud offers ease-of-use and the flexibility, sophistication and security that can only be provided by software installed on site. ownCloud users can host their own data sync and share services on their own hardware and storage, use popular public hosting and storage offerings, or both – true hybrid cloud storage.

“We were very encouraged that many of our current investors – including General Catalyst – were so impressed by our momentum that they came to us for this round,” said Markus Rex, ownCloud CEO. “We're also happy to welcome several new investors and of course Larry to our board.”

“We’ve been excited about ownCloud since its infancy, and after watching everything they've accomplished in a very short time, it validated our belief that they’d developed an exceptional team with an exceptional product,” said Bohn. “There’s no one in this increasingly crowded market that can do the things ownCloud does – integrate closely with existing IT, innovate at lightning speed and offer choice of storage locations. With those capabilities already in place differentiating it from the competition, we’re confident that ownCloud will succeed.”

About ownCloud Inc.

Based on the popular ownCloud open source community project, ownCloud Inc. was founded in 2011 to bring greater flexibility, access and security to unstructured data in enterprises. Company headquarters are in Boston, with European headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany. For more information, visit: http://www.owncloud.com.

About General Catalyst Partners

General Catalyst Partners is a growth equity and venture capital firm that invests in exceptional entrepreneurs who are building the technology-based companies that will lead innovation and transform industries. Founded in 2000, General Catalyst Partners leverages its principals' extensive operational, business development and technological expertise to provide portfolio companies with a catalyst for success through business-building and partnership development assistance. General Catalyst has offices in Cambridge, MA and Palo Alto, CA. For more information, visit: www.generalcatalyst.com.