WP Engine yesterday acquired its smaller competitor Flywheel. Flywheel is also a provider of managed WordPress hosting. Flywheel’s managed hosting platform powers the WordPress sites of over 28,000 customers. And Flywheel has 200 employees.
Flywheel was founded in 2012 by Dusty Davidson, Tony Noecker and Rick Knudtson. The company is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska.
Combined with Flywheel’s employees and clients, WP Engine will now have over 900 employees and will now power the WordPress sites of nearly 120,000 customers.
Prior to being acquired, Flywheel had raised a total of $14.2M in funding. And last year, Flywheel was recognized by Inc. Magazine as the 344th fastest growing company in the United States. Flywheel’s 2017 revenue was $8.8M according to Inc.
Earlier this year, WP Engine posted revenue of $132 million at a growth rate of over 30%. The combined companies are on track hit $200M million in ARR by 2020.
“On behalf of the WP Engine team, we couldn’t be more excited to join forces with one of the most respected brands in WordPress. I personally welcome each employee and customer into the WP Engine family and I’m excited about the opportunities we will create in the years to come,” said Heather Brunner, Chairwoman and CEO of WP Engine.
“We founded Flywheel with the belief that in order to help creatives do their best work, we needed to create an internal culture that encourages our employees to do the same,” said Dusty Davidson, CEO and co-founder of Flywheel. “That philosophy has led us to build an incredible company and some of the most well-loved products in WordPress, supported by an impressive group of talented people and the most remarkable open source community in the world. I couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve achieved to date, or more excited for what the future holds for us working together!”
WordPress today powers 34 percent of the web. And with this acquisition, WP Engine’s WordPress hosting market share gets a boost.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
