- Algolia — a leading API Platform for Search & Dynamic Experiences — announced recently that it closed $150 million in Series D funding at a post-money valuation of $2.25 billion. These are the details.
Algolia — a leading API Platform for Search & Dynamic Experiences — announced recently that it closed $150 million in Series D funding led by Lone Pine Capital at a post-money valuation of $2.25 billion. The funding round also includes funding from Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, STEADFAST Capital Ventures, Glynn Capital, Twilio, and existing investors including Accel, and Salesforce Ventures. This latest funding round brings Algolia’s total funding to $315 million.
This latest funding round reflects Algolia’s hypergrowth fueled by demand for “building block” API software that increases developer productivity, the growth in e-commerce, and digital transformation. And this additional investment enables Algolia to scale and serve the increased demand for the company’s Search and Recommendations products as well as fuel the company’s continued product expansion into adjacent markets and use-cases.
The way companies develop software has changed. And forward-looking companies have realized that applications based on opaque SaaS solutions lack flexibility and old school monolithic platforms can be costly, time-intensive, and outdated. Algolia expanded beyond search to become a multi-product company that empowers developers with its API platform to create composable applications that deliver rich, personalized, and dynamic digital experiences in real time to consumers and employees.
This new funding round caps a landmark year that saw significant growth and product innovation. And Algolia launched with the goal of creating fast, instant, and relevant search and discovery experiences that surfaced the desired information quickly.
Earlier this year, the company had announced its new vision for dynamic experiences, advancing beyond search to empower businesses to quickly predict a visitor’s intent on their digital property in real time, in the session, and in the moment. And the business, armed with this visitor intent, can surface dynamic content in the form of search results, recommendations, offers, in-app notifications, and more — all while respecting privacy laws and regulations.
The company also added 7 leaders to its executive suite in the last 18 months with the appointment of Bernadette Nixon (chief executive officer, formerly of Alfresco) along with Michelle Adams (chief revenue officer, formerly of Dropbox), Carlton Baab (chief financial officer, formerly of Alfresco), Piyush Patel (chief business development officer, formerly of Capgemini), Jim Schattin (chief customer officer, formerly of Alteryx), Jason McClelland (chief marketing officer, formerly of Salesforce and Adobe), and Bharat Guruprakash (chief product officer, formerly of Twilio).
KEY QUOTES:
“Algolia powers search and content discovery for developers with an API-first approach that can be applied to SaaS applications and e-commerce, as well as enterprise applications. That means developers can more easily build digital experiences on top of Algolia’s APIs rather than implementing and maintaining a complex backend. This new way of software development is a game-changer for businesses – helping them quickly adapt to the changing needs of their customers.”
— Lone Pine Capital
“The future is API-first – a reality underscored by the growth seen by Twilio, Stripe, Algolia and others in the API economy. A huge part of our success has, and will continue to be, our relentless focus on developers with our PLG strategy – enabling them to build search into their websites and apps, so they create the most relevant and dynamic digital experiences. And we’re excited to continue to solve customers’ problems as we continue to expand beyond search with Algolia Recommend and Predict.”
“The amazing thing about software is that you can continually iterate on it and Algolia’s API-first approach ensures that companies can build amazing experiences and great digital products, and create a cycle of continuous improvement. Companies such as Under Armour, NBC Universal, Société Générale, Stripe and many others are taking this approach and are the ones winning the hearts, minds, and wallet of their customers.”
— Bernadette Nixon, CEO, Algolia
