We get it now: Sequoia Capital really really believes in online video. The alpha venture capital firm, having scored nearly $500m on its investment in Youtube, is lead investor in Joost's gigantic new funding round. The streaming service — which offers authorized video in higher quality than Youtube, but way less variety of programming — announced it's raised $45m from Sequoia and other investors. In case this approach to online video doesn't work, Sequoia also has its chips on Funny or Die, a pool for comedy clips built around celebrity contributions from stars such as Will Ferrell. There's one other spin on Joost's news: the list of investors in Joost is a blue-chip list of venture capital and media. Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, who sold Skype to Ebay before they began work on Joost, were in a position to "select" their investors. Their choice, of Sequoia Capital and Europe's Index Ventures, underlines the new hierarchy of venture capital.

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