Charles River Ventures (CRV) recently confirmed that they are leading an investment in Beijing-based Maxthon, the originators of the Maxthon Browser, which has been downloaded more than 55 million times since 2003. CRV joins early investors Morten Lund, a seed investor in Skype, and WI Harper in providing Maxthon with funds to further fuel the company's already rapid growth.

"We are excited to work with Charles River Ventures. The people at CRV have proven to us that they have the experience to help us build our company and take it to the next level," said Jeff Chen, CEO and founder, Maxthon. "Although we have been adding millions of new users every month on our own, and have been profitable since our inception, we are excited to give them a stake in our future and to partner with them to execute our common vision." 

Safa Rashtchy, Managing Director and Senior Internet Analyst at Piper Jaffray who has been following Maxthon said, "In the new era of Internet, we believe application functionality will expand beyond the operating system into the desktops and the web; the point of personalization and delivery will become more important. We believe Maxthon and its organic growth is representative of this trend."