Optimizely Acquisition, Valuation, Funding & Investors

Optimizely was acquired by Episerver for $600M in September 2020.

Optimizely acquisition price

$600M

Acquired by Episerver · Sep 2020

Cumulative funding Optimizely raised

$193M

across 4 funding rounds

Key investors in Optimizely

  • Bain Capital Ventures
  • Benchmark
  • Andreessen Horowitz
  • Battery Ventures
  • GV
  • Index Ventures
  • Salesforce Ventures
  • Correlation Ventures

Optimizely Overview

About Optimizely

Optimizely is a San Francisco-headquartered digital experience platform. It enables A/B testing, personalization, feature experimentation, and content management for websites and apps. The solution integrates commerce and marketing tools, serving enterprises in retail, finance, and media sectors. Founded in 2006, Optimizely expanded via the 2021 acquisition of Episerver.


Founded

2010

HQ

United StatesNew York City, NY

Status

Acquired

Customer focus

B2B

Revenue model

Subscription

Valuation

$600M (Jun 2019)

Optimizely Acquisition

Optimizely was acquired by Episerver for $600M on 3 September 2020.

Before the acquisition Optimizely had raised $193M across 4 funding rounds.

Optimizely was a leading experimentation and optimization platform founded in 2009, with over 1,000 customers including Nike, Uber, and Gap. The company had raised over $264 million across 15 funding rounds and achieved a valuation of approximately $600 million in its Series D round in June 2019. Episerver, a digital experience platform company owned by Insight Partners, announced the acquisition of Optimizely on September 3, 2020, as a strategic combination to create an advanced digital experience platform spanning content management, commerce, and experimentation capabilities. The deal was expected to close in Q4 2020 with both companies remaining independent until closing, and was completed in October 2020. However, the specific purchase price was not disclosed in any press releases, filings, or news reports available. Following the acquisition, Episerver rebranded as Optimizely in January 2021, with the combined company serving approximately 9,000 brands globally.

Optimizely acquisition details
AcquirerDateTypePrice
  • Episerver
3 Sep 2020Strategic M&A$600M

Optimizely Valuation

Optimizely is currently valued at $600M, based on its Series D in June 2019.

The $50M round was led by Goldman Sachs Growth Equity, with participation from Accenture Ventures.

Optimizely's valuation has grown 3.0x from $200M at its Series B in May 2014 to $600M in June 2019, across 2 priced rounds.

Optimizely valuation by funding round

Optimizely valuation by funding round
DateStageValuation
Jun 2019Series D$600M
May 2014Series B$200M

Optimizely Funding History

Optimizely has raised a total of $193M across 4 funding rounds.

Optimizely's first fundraising round was a $28M Series A in April 2013. The most recent completed round was a $50M Series D in June 2019.

Optimizely funding rounds

Optimizely funding rounds
DateStageInvestorsRaisedValuationDeal Summary
Jun 2019Series DGoldman Sachs Growth Equity (lead); Accenture Ventures$50M$600MOptimizely is a leading digital experience optimization platform offering tools for A/B testing, personalization, feature flagging, and experimentation across web and mobile apps, serving enterprises like Gap, Visa, IBM, and a quarter of the Fortune 100. On June 18, 2019, it closed a $105 million financing package, comprising a $50 million Series D equity round led by Goldman Sachs Private Capital (noted as Goldman Sachs Growth Equity in some contexts) with participation from Accenture Ventures (Accenture Technology Ventures), plus a $55 million line of credit from Bridge Bank, bringing total funding to over $200 million. The equity investors included Michael Kondoleon from Goldman Sachs joining the board, signaling strong market leadership in experimentation and personalization. The funding aimed to widen the competitive moat through product investments, geographic expansion, team growth, and scaling infrastructure handling over 6 billion daily events, with customers tripling investments in digital experience optimization in the prior two years and machine learning features doubling conversion rates. Optimizely positioned itself as the category leader, enabling safe product launches via feature management and serving developer needs. Post-round, it extended partnerships, notably with Accenture Interactive for integrated services. The Series D carried a post-money valuation of $782.72 million, with shares priced at $25.09. Subsequently, Optimizely faced 15% staff layoffs in early 2020 amid COVID-19, was acquired by Insight Partners in 2020 and merged with Episerver (estimated ~$600 million valuation), and later achieved $400 million ARR by 2024 after launching Optimizely One.
Oct 2015Series CIndex Ventures (lead); Salesforce Ventures; Tenaya Capital; Pharus Capital Management; Omega Venture Partners; Battery Ventures; Benchmark; Andreessen Horowitz; DHVC; Citi Ventures; Bain Capital Ventures; Correlation Ventures$58M-Optimizely is the world's leading Experience Optimization Platform, providing A/B testing, personalization, and optimization tools for websites and mobile apps, enabling companies to turn data into action and improve customer experiences. Customers include CNN, Crate and Barrel, Intuit, Microsoft Store, Priceline, and Virgin America, with strong adoption as the most-used platform among Alexa top 10,000 websites and number one for iOS mobile app optimization. In October 2015, Optimizely raised $58 million in Series C funding led by Index Ventures, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Ventures, Battery Ventures, Benchmark, Citi Ventures, Correlation Ventures, DHVC (Danhua Capital), Pharus Capital Management, Salesforce Ventures, and Tenaya Capital, bringing total funding to $146 million. Ilya Fushman from Index Ventures joined the board. The funding supported expansion of personalization and testing products, growth of the partner ecosystem (over 125 partners, strongest per Forrester Wave Q3 2015), and scaling operations amid high demand in retail, travel, media, and technology sectors. Since the Series B in May 2014, Optimizely reported more than 100% revenue growth. Employee count grew to 402 from 192 in 2014, reflecting rapid scaling. Optimizely continued raising capital later, including a $50 million Series D in 2019 at ~$600 million valuation, before its acquisition by Episerver. The company focused on making experimentation mainstream for online customer competition.
May 2014Series BAndreessen Horowitz (lead); Benchmark; Bain Capital Ventures$57M$200MOptimizely, a leading website and mobile optimization platform founded in 2010 by Dan Siroker and Pete Koomen and incubated at Y Combinator, announced a $57 million Series B funding round on May 5, 2014, led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from existing investors Benchmark Capital and Bain Capital Ventures, bringing total funding to $88 million. The platform enables organizations to run online experiments for better customer experiences, serving over 7,000 customers across 101 countries who had created more than half a million experiments and optimized seven billion web experiences, comprising over 5% of the top 10,000 Alexa-ranked websites. The company reported triple-digit year-over-year growth in annual revenue since launch. With a team of 175 employees planning to expand to over 250 by year-end, Optimizely highlighted rapid product expansion including recent launches at its first customer conference OptiCon: Optimizely for iOS, Optiverse, and the Optimizely Developer Platform. Funds were earmarked to accelerate product development and ecosystem growth to turn data into action beyond web and mobile optimization. Andreessen Horowitz partner Scott Weiss joined the board. Optimizely positioned itself as the most widely adopted optimization platform, with customers including tech and VC heavyweights.
Apr 2013Series ABenchmark (lead); GV; Battery Ventures; Founder Collective; Bain Capital Ventures; InterWest Partners$28M-Optimizely is a Y Combinator-incubated startup providing a website A/B testing platform that enables companies to test different versions of their sites and deliver personalized experiences to visitors. In April 2013, it raised $28 million in a Series A round led by Benchmark, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures, Battery Ventures, InterWest Partners, and Google Ventures (GV). This followed prior funding of about $3.2 million, bringing total funding at the time to roughly $31.2 million. Benchmark's Peter Fenton joined the board as the first outside director. At the time of the round, Optimizely reported an annualized revenue run rate in the double-digit millions, with revenue growing over 400% year-over-year. The company had signed high-profile customers including the Obama and Romney 2012 presidential campaigns, and showed strong adoption among top Alexa websites. Plans for the funds included global expansion to 9 languages across 36 countries, investments in sales, marketing, infrastructure, customer support, and advancing website personalization features beyond A/B testing. Optimizely aimed to become the foundational layer for data-driven personalization on the web, similar to Amazon, Google, and Facebook. The company signed a 56,000 sq ft lease in San Francisco to scale to 450 employees.

Who has invested in Optimizely?

17 investors have backed Optimizely across its funding rounds, including Bain Capital Ventures, Benchmark, Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, GV and Index Ventures.

Lead investors include Goldman Sachs Growth Equity, Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Benchmark.


Optimizely Investors

Investors in Optimizely by funding rounds participated
InvestorHQRoundsRoleFirst check
BenchmarkUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA3LeadApr 2013
Bain Capital VenturesUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA3ParticipantApr 2013
Battery VenturesUnited StatesBoston, MA2ParticipantApr 2013
Andreessen HorowitzUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA2LeadMay 2014
Salesforce VenturesUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1ParticipantOct 2015
Tenaya CapitalUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1ParticipantOct 2015
Accenture VenturesUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1ParticipantJun 2019
Index VenturesUnited KingdomLondon1LeadOct 2015
Pharus Capital ManagementUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1ParticipantOct 2015
GVUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1ParticipantApr 2013
Omega Venture PartnersUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1ParticipantOct 2015
DHVCUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1ParticipantOct 2015
Founder CollectiveUnited StatesUnited States1ParticipantApr 2013

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Benchmark 350K+ Funding Rounds and Disclosed VC Valuation Multiples

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Acquisitions by Optimizely

Optimizely has acquired 5 companies to date.

Last acquisition by Optimizely was on September 30th 2024. Optimizely acquired NetSpring for $40M.


Latest Acquisitions by Optimizely

NetSpring
Welcome
Zaius
Experiment Engine
Description
NetSpring is a product analytics platform analyzing user journeys across web and mobile channels. It integrates with data warehouses for warehouse-native insights into feature usage and churn risks. The tool aids SaaS companies in prioritizing developments without data replication.
Welcome is a marketing orchestration platform, formerly NewsCred, enabling teams to plan, execute, and measure campaigns across channels. Headquartered in New York, the SaaS tool integrates with Adobe, Salesforce, and Google Analytics for enterprises like Unilever and Cisco. Welcome supports content collaboration, workflow automation, and performance dashboards for global marketing operations at scale.
Zaius is a Boston-headquartered customer data platform uniting data collection, analysis, and campaign execution for marketers. Founded in 2012, it drives repeat purchases through personalized e-commerce journeys for brands in retail and consumer goods.
-
HQ CountryUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited States
HQ City
San Francisco, CA
New York City, NY
Boston, MA
-
Deal Date30 Sep 20241 Dec 202122 Mar 202119 Apr 2017
Valuation$40Mundisclosedundisclosedundisclosed
EV/Revenue
EV/EBITDA

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Optimizely Competitors

Optimizely competitors include listed companies like Wix.com, AudioEye and Vtex, and private ones like Contentstack, Postscript and ADA.

Public and private companies comparable to Optimizely
CompanyHQStatusRevenueEBITDAValuationRevenue Multiple
ContentstackUnited StatesAustin, TXPrivate--$574M-
Wix.comUnited StatesUnited StatesPublicly listed$2B($13M)$3.3B2.0x
AudioEyeUnited StatesUnited StatesPublicly listed$40M$2M$93M2.4x
VtexBrazilBrazilPublicly listed$241M$22M$602M1.6x
PostscriptUnited StatesPhoenix, AZPrivate$39M-$636M16.3x
ADAMalaysiaKuala LumpurPrivate$72M$1M$550M-

Optimizely Public Comps

Optimizely is no longer listed, but its public comps include Vtex, Yext, THG, Auction Technology Group, Locaweb, Foxit Software, Objective Corp., Shanghai Wondertek, Riskified and ODDITY Tech.

Last FYEV/RevenueEV/EBITDA
RevenueEBITDALast FYLTM2027ELast FYLTM2027E
Vtex$241M$22M1.8x1.6x19.2x10.5x
Yext$447M$80M1.7x1.7x9.3x6.0x
THG$2.3B$133M0.5x0.5x9.1x9.5x
Auction Technology Group$190M($93M)4.5x3.5x(9.2x)10.0x
Locaweb$290M($31M)1.3x1.3x(12.5x)5.3x
Foxit Software$159M$13M3.4x3.1x40.8x20.2x
Objective Corp.$85M$33M3.9x3.5x10.3x9.5x
Shanghai Wondertek$38M$3M7.4x-83.5x-

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Common questions about Optimizely

When was Optimizely founded?Optimizely was founded in 2010.
Where is Optimizely headquartered?Optimizely is headquartered in New York City, NY, United States.
Is Optimizely publicly listed?No, Optimizely was acquired by Episerver in September 2020.
Who acquired Optimizely?Optimizely was acquired by Episerver in September 2020.
How much was Optimizely acquired for?Optimizely was acquired for $600M in September 2020.
What is Optimizely's valuation?Optimizely was last valued at $600M in its Series D in June 2019.
How much funding has Optimizely raised?Optimizely has raised $193M across 4 funding rounds.
What was Optimizely's last funding round?Optimizely's last funding round was a $50M Series D in June 2019, led by Goldman Sachs Growth Equity.
Who are Optimizely's investors?Optimizely's investors include Benchmark, Bain Capital Ventures, Battery Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Salesforce Ventures, Tenaya Capital, Accenture Ventures, Index Ventures, Pharus Capital Management, GV and 7 others.
Which companies are comparable to Optimizely?Companies comparable to Optimizely include Contentstack, Wix.com, AudioEye, Vtex, Postscript and ADA.
How many companies has Optimizely acquired?Optimizely has acquired 5 companies, including NetSpring, Welcome, Zaius, Experiment Engine and Synference.
What was the largest acquisition by Optimizely?The $40M acquisition of NetSpring in September 2024 is the largest acquisition Optimizely has made to date.

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