SaaS Pioneer Open-Xchange Raises $20M To Expand Its Cloud-Based Services

Grazed from TechCrunch. Author: Catherine Shu.

Open-Xchange, a maker of Web-based communication, collaboration and office productivity open-source software, has received $20 million in funding from United Internet, former Deutsche Bank COO Hermann-Josef Lamberti and existing shareholders. Part of the proceeds will be used for a secondary transaction. This investment round is notable because it’s the first time Open-Xchange has announced new funding since 2008, when it raised a $9 million Series B.

The company has delivered Open-Xchange in the form as software-as-a-service (SaaS) for six years, making them pioneers in that area, and it’s now poised to take advantage of the shift toward cloud office systems, which Gartner estimates will rise from 50 million users today to 695 million by 2022. The company plans to use the funds to invest in software development, professional services and international business development, as well as marketing and sales…

Open-Xchange launched OX App Suite earlier this year, an integrated Web desktop that shares information and files across devices, allowing users to manage their files, email and contacts. In March, the company also introduced OX Text, the first application of its Cloud-based office productivity suite OX Documents, which was built by original members of the OpenOffice team and enables document editing in browsers. Open-Xchange plans to complete the software suite with spreadsheet and presentation editing apps within the next 12 months…

Read more from the source @ http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/17/saas-pioneer-open-xchange-raises-20m-to-expand-its-cloud-based-services/