Greylock Partners Invests in The Box, a Leading Israeli Content and New Media Company

Funding to Propel Global Expansion of its Creative, Content and Advertising Offerings; Applying Israels Innovative Creativity to the Entertainment Business

TEL AVIV The Box., one of Israel’s leading content and creative companies, announced that Greylock Partners has invested several million dollars in the company. The Box specializes in the creation of compelling “out of the box” content for broadcast entertainment and advertising that seamlessly integrates multiple forms of media, including television, Internet, and mobile, into a innovative- blend of advertising and entertainment (“advertainment”).

Greylock’s investment will be used to accelerate The Box’s international expansion, including hiring new staff and officially opening its US office in the Los Angeles area, as well as ramping up activities in London and Paris.

As part of the funding, The Box also added two board members: Moshe Mor, a partner at Greylock’s Israel fund; and David Chissick, a seasoned media and technology entrepreneur with an extensive international background in identifying promising entertainment related businesses from outside the US for adoption by the US media industry.

The Box is Greylock Israel’s first content oriented investment. One of the world’s leading venture capital firms, Greylock Partners has been investing in Israel since 2001 through a dedicated fund. Greylock’s significant investments include Facebook, LinkedIn, ZipCar, and DoubleClick.

The Box creates and produces innovative, cross platform new media campaigns for some of the world’s leading brands including, Nike, Coca Cola, Orange, Doritos and Disney. The company recently launched “CelebZ,” a 30-minute prime-time animated series where viewers can actually create 25 percent of the show’s content using The Box’s proprietary innovative interactive content creation platform. A companion Web site lets viewers drag and drop characters, backgrounds, scripts and music to create sketches – which are put to a nationwide vote, with the winning sketch then professionally produced and integrated into the next week’s episode. The series is currently aired on the “Yes Stars” channel of Israel’s Yes satellite network, and will soon to be produced in other territories worldwide.

“Great content businesses transcend borders, and the same Israeli entrepreneurial culture that has spawned new TV programs and advertising here can help reshape the digital media landscape somewhere else,” said Moshe Mor, partner at Greylock’s Israel fund. “In just a few short years The Box has become a leading entertainment and creative firm in Israel, and a pioneer in integrating different media platforms in breakthrough ways, such as it’s done with the ‘CelebZ’ series. We are delighted to help The Box to accelerate its growth and global aspirations.”

“We develop creative that makes people sit on the edge of their seats, with cross-platform programs that are truly out of the box ,” said Eli Uzan, Founder and CEO of The Box. “With the additional funding from Greylock, we can focus on increasing these activities and partnerships abroad so we can deliver our creativity as well as compelling TV programs and “advertainment” campaigns for major brands in all territories. We are very pleased to join forces with Greylock and David Chissick, and are sure that the collaboration will contribute to the company’s success and its global objectives.”

About Greylock Partners

Founded in 1965, Greylock Partners is one of the world’s leading venture capital firms. Over the past four decades, Greylock has funded and helped build several hundred market-leading companies, including Ascend Communications, CheckFree, CipherTrust, Constant Contact, Continental Cable, Decru, Data Domain, digg, DoubleClick, Facebook, Farecast, Internet Security Systems, Ikanos, Legato, LinkedIn, Media Metrix, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Openwave, Open Market, Red Hat, RightNow Technologies, Success Factors, Tellabs, Trilogy, Wily Technology, Workday and Zipcar. Companies Greylock has funded in Israel include WebCollage, Red Bend, Siliquent Technologies, MySuprmarket.com, Payoneer, Imperva, Port Authority and Zend Technologies.

The Greylock approach is to put the entrepreneur first in a highly supportive way and to provide founders the resources they need to build outstanding businesses. Greylock operates in a number of global centers of innovation, including Silicon Valley, Boston, Israel and India.

For more information, please visit http://www.greylock.com.

About The Box

The Box is one of Israel’s leading content company. Founded in 2003, the company is divided into -two divisions – Original content and Advertising. The Box specializes in the creation of true cross platform content for the benefit of both advertisers as well as the entertainment of TV viewers, internet and mobile users. Bridging the chasm between content and technology while creating seamless integration of all media platforms, the Company’s clients and projects include Orange, Disney, Comverse, Coca-Cola, Nike and Doritos.

The Box’s content division constantly develops original interactive formats such as “Sports Puppets” and “CelebZ,” a prime-time satirical series, currently broadcast in Israel on the “Yes Stars” channel of Israel’s satellite network and soon to be launched internationally. The company has creative and sound studios and offices in Tel-Aviv.

Further information on the company website: www.theboxsite.com

Source: The Box