Squarespace Acquisition, Valuation, Funding & Investors

Squarespace was acquired by Permira, General Atlantic and Accel for $7.2B in September 2024, a 7.1x multiple on $1B of revenue.

Squarespace acquisition price

$7.2B

Acquired by Permira, General Atlantic +1 · Sep 2024

Squarespace revenue at acquisition

$1B

Last twelve months · Sep 2024

Squarespace revenue multiple at acquisition

7.1x

EV/Revenue · Sep 2024

Squarespace EBITDA multiple at acquisition

30.6x

EV/EBITDA · Sep 2024

Squarespace Overview

About Squarespace

Squarespace is a New York-based company that sells software for building websites, online stores and domain names, together with scheduling and hospitality tools, on a subscription basis. Anthony Casalena founded it in 2003 and it launched its first product in 2004. It raised venture funding from Accel and Index Ventures in 2010 and General Atlantic in 2014, listed on the New York Stock Exchange through a direct listing in May 2021 and was taken private by Permira in a transaction valued at about US$7.2 billion that closed in October 2024. Casalena remains chief executive and one of the largest shareholders. The company reported revenue of US$1.01 billion for 2023 and about 1,750 employees. Its own acquisitions include Brace (2014), Acuity Scheduling (2019), Unfold (2019) and the restaurant reservation platform Tock (2021), which it later sold to American Express. In 2023 it also took over the Google Domains registrar business.


Founded

2003

HQ

United StatesNew York City, NY

Status

Acquired

Customer focus

B2B & B2C

Revenue model

Subscription

Revenue

$621M (Mar 2021)

Valuation

$10B (Mar 2021)

Squarespace Acquisition

Squarespace was acquired by Permira, General Atlantic and Accel for $7.2B on 9 September 2024.

The acquisition price implies a 7.1x revenue and 30.6x EBITDA multiple on $1B of revenue.

Before the acquisition Squarespace had raised $379M across 3 funding rounds.

Permira agreed to take Squarespace private in an all-cash deal, first announced on 13 May 2024 at US$44.00 per share and an enterprise value of about US$6.9 billion. The buyer later raised its offer on 9 September 2024 to US$46.50 per share, an aggregate transaction value of about US$7.2 billion, which is the price ultimately paid. Founder and chief executive Anthony Casalena rolled over most of his equity and stayed on as CEO, and long-term investors General Atlantic and Accel re-invested alongside Permira. The revised deal was run as a tender offer, which expired on 11 October 2024, and the acquisition closed on 17 October 2024, taking the company off the New York Stock Exchange where it had listed by direct listing in May 2021. Squarespace is the New York-based provider of website building, domain, e-commerce, scheduling and marketing tools for individuals and small businesses. It generated revenue of US$1,012 million and adjusted EBITDA of US$235 million in 2023 and had more than 4.6 million unique subscriptions at the end of that year. Blackstone Credit, Blue Owl and Ares arranged the debt financing.

Squarespace acquisition details
AcquirerDateTypePriceEV/RevenueEV/EBITDA
  • Permira
  • General Atlantic
  • Accel
9 Sep 2024PE buyout$7.2B7.1x30.6x

Sources: sec.gov, squarespace.com, sec.gov

Squarespace Valuation

Squarespace is currently valued at $10B, based on its undisclosed-stage round in March 2021. Read the announcement ↗

The $300M round included Dragoneer, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, General Atlantic, The Spruce House Partnership and 3 other investors.

Squarespace's valuation has grown 14x from $691M at its Series B in April 2014 to $10B in March 2021, across 3 priced rounds.

Squarespace valuation by funding round

Revenue multiple
Squarespace valuation by funding round
DateStageValuationRevenue Multiple
Mar 2021Undisclosed stage$10B16.1x
Dec 2017Secondary$1.7B5.7x
Apr 2014Series B$691M19.7x

Squarespace Revenue

Squarespace's latest recorded revenue is $621M, as of its undisclosed-stage round in March 2021. At a $10B valuation, that implies a 16.1x revenue multiple.

Revenue grew from $35M in April 2014 to $621M in March 2021, while the revenue multiple moved from 19.7x to 16.1x.

Squarespace revenue by funding round

Squarespace revenue and valuation multiple by funding round
DateRevenue *ValuationRevenue MultipleStage
Mar 2021$621M$10B16.1xUndisclosed stage
Dec 2017$300M$1.7B5.7xSecondary
Apr 2014$35M$691M19.7xSeries B

* Revenue (or ARR) figures are the values recorded alongside each funding round. Typically run-rate revenue at the time of the deal, or a reported LTM (last 12 months) revenue.

Squarespace Funding History

Squarespace has raised a total of $379M across 3 funding rounds, plus 1 secondary share sale.

Squarespace's first fundraising round was a $39M Series A in July 2010. The most recent completed round was a $300M undisclosed-stage round in March 2021.

Squarespace funding rounds

Squarespace funding rounds
DateStageInvestorsRaisedValuationDeal Summary
Mar 2021Undisclosed stageDragoneer; Fidelity; T. Rowe Price; General Atlantic; The Spruce House Partnership; Tiger Global; D1 Capital Partners; Accel$300M$10BSquarespace, the all-in-one website building and ecommerce platform, raised approximately $300 million in a private investment round on March 16, 2021, achieving an enterprise valuation of $10 billion. The investors included new participants Dragoneer Investment Group, Tiger Global, D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity Management & Research Company, funds advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and The Spruce House Partnership, along with existing investors Accel and General Atlantic. Proceeds were intended to advance growth initiatives and support the mission to enable users to build brands and transact online through websites, domains, ecommerce, marketing tools, scheduling, and social media management via Unfold. This funding preceded Squarespace's direct listing on the NYSE later in 2021. The company reported strong growth metrics around this period; for Q1 2021 ending March 31, revenue reached approximately $180 million with commerce revenue at $47 million, up 78% year-over-year, while presence revenue was about $133 million, up 20%. Full-year 2021 revenue totaled $784 million, up 26% from 2020's $621.1 million, with annual run rate revenue (ARRR) at $835.2 million by year-end. Squarespace's unique subscriptions grew to 4.1 million by end-2021, up 12% year-over-year, with average revenue per unique subscription (ARPUS) at $203, up 9%. Commerce revenue for 2021 reached $229.5 million, a 60% increase. Adjusted EBITDA for 2021 was $125.1 million, up 7% year-over-year.
Dec 2017SecondaryGeneral Atlantic (lead)$200M$1.7BSquarespace, the New York website-building and e-commerce platform, raised about US$200 million from General Atlantic in December 2017 at a valuation of US$1.7 billion, in a round that went largely to buy out shares held by early employees and investors rather than to fund the business. General Atlantic was already a shareholder, having led a US$40 million Series B in 2014, and its head of internet and technology, Anton Levy, said the firm would have bought more had it been offered. Founder and chief executive Anthony Casalena said the company had generated about US$300 million of revenue over the previous year, up roughly 50 percent, and Squarespace was profitable. The valuation implied about 5.7 times trailing revenue and put Squarespace in the same range as other well-known private web companies. The company, founded in 2003, sells subscriptions for website design and hosting, domains, e-commerce and marketing tools to individuals and small businesses and employed around 700 people. It later raised US$300 million at a US$10 billion valuation in March 2021, listed directly on the NYSE in May 2021 and was taken private by Permira in 2024.
Apr 2014Series BGeneral Atlantic (lead)$40M$691MSquarespace, a leading all-in-one website publishing and e-commerce platform, raised $40 million in Series B funding on April 15, 2014, exclusively from global growth investor General Atlantic. The round was conducted by issuing 12,634,398 series B preferred shares at $3.16596 per share, resulting in a post-money valuation of approximately $690.6 million. Anton Levy, Managing Director and head of Internet & Technology at General Atlantic, joined the company's board of directors as part of the transaction. The capital was earmarked to scale Squarespace's engineering, design, and infrastructure teams, deliver new products, and accelerate global expansion of the platform. Founded in 2003 by Anthony Casalena, Squarespace had previously raised $38.5 million in a 2010 Series A from investors including Accel Partners and Index Ventures, bringing total funding to at least $78 million by 2014. The company reported hundreds of thousands of customers across 121 countries, millions of websites created, and 285 employees in New York, Dublin, and soon Portland. The company had a history of profitability prior to its Series A, per VentureWire records. Squarespace positioned itself as a best-in-class tool for non-technical users to build and maintain personal and business websites without coding, with subscription pricing starting at $8 per month. It emphasized creativity, enabling users to bring ideas online through websites and online stores. The investment came amid competition in web publishing, such as Automattic's WordPress, which was reportedly seeking funding at over $1 billion valuation around the same time.
Jul 2010Series AIndex Ventures (lead); Accel (lead)$39M-Squarespace, the web publishing and website-building platform founded by Anthony Casalena in 2003, closed a US$38.5 million minority growth investment on 14 July 2010 led by Index Ventures and Accel Partners. It was the first outside capital the company had raised since its founding, and Casalena remained its largest shareholder. As part of the deal Dominique Vidal of Index Ventures' growth team, Andrew Braccia of Accel and Jonathan Klein, founder and chief executive of Getty Images, joined a newly formed board. Squarespace said it would use the money to expand its engineering and design capacity and to accelerate the growth of its software-as-a-service publishing platform, which then powered tens of thousands of websites worldwide. The company had been profitable since early in its life and was based in New York, with a subscription model that charged users monthly fees for hosting, templates and tools. General Atlantic later invested US$40 million in 2014, and the company listed directly on the NYSE in 2021 before being taken private by Permira in 2024.

Who has invested in Squarespace?

9 investors have backed Squarespace across its funding rounds, including General Atlantic, Accel, Tiger Global, Index Ventures, Fidelity and T. Rowe Price.

Lead investors include General Atlantic, Index Ventures and Accel.


Squarespace Investors

Investors in Squarespace by funding rounds participated
InvestorHQRoundsRoleFirst check
General AtlanticUnited StatesNew York City, NY3LeadApr 2014
AccelUnited StatesPalo Alto, CA2LeadJul 2010
DragoneerUnited StatesSan Francisco, CA1ParticipantMar 2021
Index VenturesUnited KingdomLondon1LeadJul 2010
FidelityUnited StatesBoston, MA1ParticipantMar 2021
T. Rowe PriceUnited StatesBaltimore, MD1ParticipantMar 2021
The Spruce House PartnershipUnited StatesNew York City, NY1ParticipantMar 2021

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Acquisitions by Squarespace

Squarespace has acquired 4 companies to date.

Last acquisition by Squarespace was on March 31st 2021. Squarespace acquired Tock for $400M.


Latest Acquisitions by Squarespace

Tock
Unfold
Acuity Scheduling
Brace
Description
Tock is a Chicago-headquartered reservation and table management platform acquired by Squarespace in 2021. It powers bookings waitlists prepaid tickets and virtual waitrooms for restaurants hotels and events worldwide including Michelin-starred venues like Alinea and global chains such as José Andrés Group. Tock processes millions in prepaid reservations annually optimizing seating revenue and guest experiences.
Unfold is a mobile app toolkit for creating Instagram stories with customizable templates. Users select from thousands of designs for collages, quotes, and photo layouts, adding text, stickers, and animations. Available on iOS and Android, it processes over 10 million downloads and integrates with social media sharing. The Copenhagen-based company updates weekly with seasonal themes and font libraries.
Acuity Scheduling is an online appointment booking platform acquired by Squarespace in 2019 that enables businesses to create customizable scheduling pages. Users integrate the service via dedicated URLs or website embeds, supporting 24/7 availability with automatic time zone conversions for international clients. The platform handles notifications, reminders, client intake forms, and an integrated online store for products and gift certificates. Squarespace, Inc., the New York-based parent company, serves over 100,000 small businesses worldwide with these tools.
Brace is a cloud hosting provider simplifying website deployment with Dropbox-like file syncing between draft and production environments. Launched for developers, it automatically optimizes production sites for speed using CDN distribution and serverless architecture. Brace supports static sites, JAMstack frameworks like Gatsby, and custom domains with SSL certificates. Its infrastructure scales to handle traffic spikes for e-commerce and media sites. The service operates data centers in the US and Europe for global low-latency access.
HQ CountryUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited StatesUnited States
HQ City
Chicago, IL
New York City, NY
New York City, NY
San Francisco, CA
Deal Date31 Mar 202122 Oct 201923 Apr 20197 Jan 2015
Valuation$400Mundisclosed$50Mundisclosed
EV/Revenue
EV/EBITDA

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Squarespace Competitors

Squarespace competitors include listed companies like Global-e, Rakuten and Mango Excellent Media, and private ones like Snapdeal, Back Market and Noon.

Public and private companies comparable to Squarespace
CompanyHQStatusRevenueEBITDAValuationRevenue Multiple
Global-eUnited StatesUnited StatesPublicly listed$962M$159M$7.2B5.2x
SnapdealIndiaNew DelhiPrivate$173M-$6.5B37.6x
RakutenJapanJapanPublicly listed$16B$2.1B$8.6B0.8x
Back MarketFranceParisPrivate$223M-$5.7B25.5x
Mango Excellent MediaChinaChinaPublicly listed$2.1B$1B$9.8B4.5x
NoonSaudi ArabiaRiyadhPrivate--$10B-

Squarespace Public Comps

Squarespace is no longer listed, but its public comps include Global-e, Zalando, Vipshop, Alibaba Health, Zozo, Rakuten, Chewy, Vishal Mega Mart, Mango Excellent Media and Openlane.

Last FYEV/RevenueEV/EBITDA
RevenueEBITDALast FYLTM2027ELast FYLTM2027E
Global-e$962M$159M7.0x5.2x42.3x24.1x
Zalando$14B$764M0.6x0.5x10.0x6.8x
Vipshop$16B$1.5B0.2x0.3x2.6x2.8x
Alibaba Health$5.1B$280M1.0x0.9x17.6x16.3x
Zozo$1.4B$481M4.3x4.1x12.8x12.0x
Rakuten$16B$2.1B0.8x0.8x6.3x4.3x
Chewy$13B$377M0.8x0.7x25.4x11.0x
Vishal Mega Mart$1.4B$208M3.4x3.1x22.4x21.4x

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Common questions about Squarespace

When was Squarespace founded?Squarespace was founded in 2003.
Where is Squarespace headquartered?Squarespace is headquartered in New York City, NY, United States.
Is Squarespace publicly listed?No, Squarespace was acquired by Permira, General Atlantic and Accel in September 2024.
Who acquired Squarespace?Squarespace was acquired by Permira, General Atlantic and Accel in September 2024.
How much was Squarespace acquired for?Squarespace was acquired for $7.2B in September 2024, a 7.1x revenue multiple.
What is Squarespace's valuation?Squarespace was last valued at $10B in its undisclosed-stage round in March 2021.
How much funding has Squarespace raised?Squarespace has raised $379M across 3 funding rounds.
What was Squarespace's last funding round?Squarespace's last funding round was a $300M undisclosed-stage round in March 2021.
Who are Squarespace's investors?Squarespace's investors include General Atlantic, Accel, Dragoneer, Index Ventures, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, The Spruce House Partnership, Tiger Global and D1 Capital Partners.
What is Squarespace's revenue?Squarespace's latest recorded revenue is $621M (March 2021).
What is Squarespace's revenue multiple?Squarespace's latest valuation implies a 16.1x revenue multiple ($10B valuation on $621M of revenue).
Which companies are comparable to Squarespace?Companies comparable to Squarespace include Global-e, Snapdeal, Rakuten, Back Market, Mango Excellent Media and Noon.
How many companies has Squarespace acquired?Squarespace has acquired 4 companies, including Tock, Unfold, Acuity Scheduling and Brace.
What was the largest acquisition by Squarespace?The $400M acquisition of Tock in March 2021 is the largest acquisition Squarespace has made to date.

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