Dropbox secures nearly €200 million Private Equity funding at €7.5 billion valuation

Dropbox has secured nearly €200 million from Blackrock and other Private Equity investors in a new funding round that values the provider of online storage services at almost €7.5 billion, according to unidentified sources. This makes Dropbox one of the highest-valued venture-backed companies out there. Dropbox is a 6-year-old startup from Silicon Valley many expect to go public anytime soon. The company takes advantage of the current rush of flush investors and skyrocketing valuations for fledgling tech companies. The company has undergone tremendous growth amid the meteoric rise of cloud Internet, storage, which is expected to continue booming alongside mobile computing. Other companies, including Microsoft and Amazon are expanding into the cloud business Dropbox's other investors are said to include Goldman Sachs, Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, Index Ventures and some other Venture Capital firms. The valuation of Dropbox as a startup has climbed alongside the demand for online storage. In 2011 Dropbox was valued at about €3 billion after a funding round. Since launching in 2008, Dropbox has established itself as the standard for consumer cloud storage Dropbox offers limited amounts of storage for free to individual consumers, who had been its initial focus, but analysts expect it to increasingly go after the deep-pocketed corporate market. Rival startup business Box is also preparing to go public as early as 2014, sources said #luxury #brands #retail #youngandminted #CEO #retail #marketing #fanpower #privateequity #venturecapital #Funding #IPO #Tech #Newmedia #Startups #EDM #DJ #Seedcapital #entertainment #Facebook #fanengagement # fanloyalty # loyaltyprogram # musicindustry #Recordlabel #socialmedia