- Automattic announced it has raised $300 million in a Series D round of funding from Salesforce Ventures at a $3 billion post-money valuation
Automattic — the parent company of WordPress.com, Jetpack, WooCommerce, and WordPress VIP — announced it has raised $300 million in a Series D round of funding from Salesforce Ventures, which is joining Insight, Tiger Global, and True Ventures as an investor. This funding was at a $3 billion post-money valuation.
Automattic Inc. CEO Matt Mullenweg pointed out that the funding will be used for fueling the growth of the company and allow it to scale its businesses and continue its investment in the growing WordPress ecosystem.
“The investment and partnership with Salesforce represents a tremendous vote of confidence in Automattic’s business and the future of the open web,” said Mullenweg in a statement.
WordPress — the open source publishing platform — is now powering more than 34% of all sites on the web. And Automattic is a major contributor to the platform.
“I met Marc Benioff earlier this year, and it became obvious to both of us that Salesforce and Automattic shared a lot of principles and philosophies. Marc is a mindful leader and his sensibilities and sense of purpose feel well aligned with our own mission to make the web a better place. He also helped open my eyes to the incredible traction WordPress and WP VIP has seen in the enterprise market, and how much potential there still is there,” added Mullenweg in a blog post. “I’ve also loved re-connecting with Bret Taylor who is now Salesforce’s President and Chief Product Officer. Bret’s experience across Google Maps, Friendfeed, Facebook, Quip, and now transforming Salesforce makes him one of the singular product thinkers out there and our discussion of Automattic’s portfolio of services have been very helpful already.”
Automattic is a fully distributed company without a central office. And it has 900 employees working from 71 countries. And Automattic will have around 1,200 employees working at the company once the Tumblr acquisition completes.
“Through Salesforce’s investment and partnership with Automattic we look forward to deepening our commitment to WordPress and the open web,” added Taylor, the President and Chief Product Officer of Salesforce.
