Free e-mail pioneer Juno Online Services Inc. this week secured $65 million in new financing after selling preferred stock to a number of companies that include some of Silicon Valley’s most famous names.
The company, which announced the investment Friday, said the investing companies were Intel Corp., News Corp. and venture capital firms Prospect Street Ventures and Sycamore Ventures.
Juno was one of the first companies to offer free e-mail in what has become an intensely crowded market. However, unlike it’s Web-based competitors, Juno’s e-mail offering runs off a proprietary dial-up service. Juno says more than 6.5 million people have signed up for its free e-mail service.
Since launching in April 1996, the company has expanded its services to include pay offerings. Juno Gold allows members to include attachments in their e-mail and costs $2.95 a month. Juno Web is a consumer Internet access service that costs $19.95 a month.