nivio secures $21m

nivio (Paulo Alto, CA., USA), has announced it has secured $21 million in funding, hot on the heels of its US launch at MacWorld|iWorld. The investment will support nivio’s mission to bring the magic back to computing, by expanding engineering efforts in nivio’s Palo Alto office and further roll-out of the cloud platform across nivio’s operating regions in Europe, Middle East, India and Australia.

The round was completed by Videocon (& Group Companies), a $5 billion conglomerate headquartered in India, and AEC Partners, a boutique private equity firm in Kansas City with specialized holdings in telecommunications and technology.

Sachin Duggal, Chief Wizard, nivio

“We are extremely happy to bring two new passionate investors into our team,” said Sachin Dev Duggal, founder and chief wizard at nivio. “We’re also very proud that nivio has successfully delivered 7x returns to some of our angels in this round. The support we’ve received from our angels over the last seven years has been unparalleled and without their support we would not have got this far.”

The funding announcement comes at a time when the market for cloud desktop computing is rapidly expanding. With the surge in tablet adoption, millions of people need the freedom to use Microsoft Windows, desktop apps and synchronized storage, working seamlessly across any screen. At nivio, users can access a full Microsoft OS in the cloud, when and where they need it, on any flavor of tablet, laptop, or PC, with files synched seamlessly.

“I have been involved with nivio for three years and have seen it grow from a visionary idea to a breakthrough product that is now poised to make a major impact. In that time, the Company has assembled a world class management team that is leading the company’s launch in the US, the world’s most demanding computer market.” said Adrian Cox, a nivio Board Member and previous Executive Vice President and CEO of Ask.com Europe.

nivio’s sets the standard for cloud desktop performance with a downloadable, rich client experience to any device. nivio’s clients for iOS, Android, Windows and Mac will be available later this month along with the Ubiquity client, which delivers the entire desktop over any HTML5 browser. The Ubiquity client delivers the Windows OS and productivity software (such as Microsoft Office) from nivio’s Cloud to any device, eliminating the need for users to download anything.  nivio’s App-Store lets users rent regular desktop software on any screen and the nDrive takes advantage of 10GB of free storage into which they drop their files and have them sync’ed across their devices.

Venugopal Dhoot, Chairman Videocon

“We are very excited about this space; especially as there is a sea-change happening in this industry and across the board between consumer electronics and Computing; and nivio saw this vision well before the Cloud was even called the Cloud. We are excited about the future opportunities for globalisation it presents to Videocon and the strategic benefit to our existing products and services!” said Venugopal Dhoot, Chairman Videocon.

Beyond nivio’s product vision, the Company’s painted picture is  heavily focused on culture with a view to create a company that’s both innovative and a sexy place to work for within the coming years.

“With strong and vibrant culture the job of the CEO or Chief Wizard is fairly straight-forward; paint the universe, bring in a team of all stars and then just keep them shining bright.” said Sachin when asked about why culture and magic go hand in hand.

Source: nivio