The company will use the funds to further develop its software and continue expanding its business in the U.S., Europe and emerging markets.

Open-Xchange Inc., a provider of open source collaboration software, has closed a Series B round of venture funding totaling $9 million. The company states that it will use the funds to further develop its software and continue expanding its business in the U.S., Europe and emerging markets.

It explains that the round was led by eCAPITAL entrepreneurial Partners AG, a Munster, Germany-based, high-growth IT equity firm. The company further explains that also participating are Munich-based, BayBG, and existing Munich-based investor, BayTech Venture Capital. Frank Hoelzle, managing partner at eCAPITAL, will join the Open-Xchange board of directors and terms of the financing deal were not disclosed, it adds. The company avers that built as open source software, it is an affordable alternative to commercial email/collaboration platforms like Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint providing an equivalent user experience with features like mobility support, document sharing, shared calendars and shared address books.

"We're at a point of unprecedented growth in our company's history and will use these funds to help us add another 10 million mailboxes next year," said Rafael Laguna, CEO of Open-Xchange. "As the lifeblood of every organization no matter what size, email and collaboration are going through a phase of dramatic change in many cases to hosted delivery and software as a service."