Cloud storage startup Hive.im, creators of the first social network for file sharing, has raised a seed round of US $500,000. The funding news also signifies the Hong Kong startup’s move out of beta and they’ll be using the capital to build out their product and their San Francisco-based team.
Hong Kong startup support and investment platform Bigcolors headed up the deal, with German cloud-based DDoS-mitigation service provider Link11 GmbH also contributing to the round. Co-founder and CEO Thierry Lehartel said in a release that Bigcolors and Link11 GmbH are perfect strategic partners as they’re not only able to support the backend of the Hive social network, but can also help speed up global expansion plans.
“Hong Kong-based Bigcolors has the experience and know-how to take Hive deeply into Asia and help with US expansion, while German-based Link11 provides the backbone of the secure and scalable Hive cloud service,” said Lehartel.
Hive’s unique offerings include unlimited cloud storage and a social-focused file sharing which gives users the option to keep content on lock down, or to share within groups. Hive is innovative in the way that it moves away from the traditional pay-per GB model to put emphasis on personal content discovery and sharing.
What’s neat is Hive gives its users incentive to boost their social network: The more friends you have, the cheaper your ‘Premium Plan’ gets. The plan, which costs $9 if you have under 10 friends, is free if you have 100+ and offers up the ability to stream high quality music, HD video, speedy downloads and an ad-free experience.
Since launching in beta a few months back in October 2014, Hive has been growing quickly – having signed on over 100,000 active users in less than two months and have been localized in English, French, Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese.
“We came out of the gate with a strong start and we are seeing markets around the world lighting up on a weekly basis. It is all product driven, which further validates that our vision of cloud storage is touching consumers in a unique way,” said Lehartel. “We want to build up on the momentum and pursue an aggressive growth plan, which will be initially fueled by the funding.”
Won’t there be piracy issues associated here? If I upload an mp3 and share to my friend this is effectively illegal. I may be wrong here.