Optimizely Explained

Optimizely, Inc.
Type:Private
Industry:Software
Foundation:January 2010[1] [2] [3]
Founder:Dan Siroker[4] [5] [6]
Pete Koomen[7] [8] [9]
Location Country:United States
Area Served:Worldwide
Num Employees:1400+ (as of May 2024)
Parent:Episerver
Homepage:https://www.optimizely.com

Optimizely is an American company that provides digital experience platform software as a service.[10] Optimizely provides A/B testing and multivariate testing tools, website personalization, and feature toggle capabilities, as well as web content management and digital commerce.[11]

The company was acquired by Episerver in October 2020[12] and in January of 2021 Episerver announced that they were branding the combined company as "Optimizely".[13]

History

Optimizely was founded in 2010 by Dan Siroker and Pete Koomen, both formerly of Google.[14] [15] [16] Optimizely completed the Y Combinator seed accelerator program in the winter of 2010.[17] In November 2010, Optimizely closed a US$1.2 million funding round from angel investors.[18] The company became cash flow positive in 2011.[19] In May 2012 Optimizely announced that it had raised new funding from Battery Ventures, GV, and InterWest Partners.[20]

In April 2013, Optimizely raised $28 million in Series A round funding. The round was led by Benchmark, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures and Optimizely's existing investors Battery Ventures, InterWest Partners, and Google Ventures. Benchmark's Peter Fenton joined Optimizely's board of directors.[21] In April 2013 Optimizely launched support for nine European languages.[22]

On April 17, 2014, Optimizely held its first Opticon user conference, where it announced the launch of its new mobile app A/B testing software.[23] In May 2014, Optimizely raised $57 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Benchmark and Bain Capital Ventures. As part of the round, Scott Weiss general partner at Andreessen Horowitz joined Optimizely's board of directors.[24]

In October 2015, the company released its second product for mobile and website personalization.[25] [26] [27] The same month, Optimizely raised $58 million in Series C funding, led by Index Ventures, with participation from firms such as Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Ventures, Battery Ventures, Benchmark Capital, Citi Ventures, Danhua Capital, Salesforce Ventures and Tenaya Capital. As part of the round, Ilya Fushman of Index joined Optimizely's board of directors.[28] [29] [30]

On March 10, 2016, Optimizely laid off 40 employees, 10% of the workforce.[31] [32] In September 2016, the company released Optimizely X, with expanded solutions for web experimentation, personalization, recommendations, mobile, full stack, and OTT.[33]

In July 2017, Jay Larson replaced Dan Siroker as the company's CEO. Pete Koomen was the company's CTO in 2012.[34] [35] [36] [37] Co-founder Dan Joseph Siroker became the company's Executive Chairman in July 2017.[38] [1] [39] [40] [41]

In July 2020, the company laid off 15% of its staff due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.[42] On September 3, 2020, Episerver announced that they were acquiring Optimizely, and the acquisition was completed on October, 21st 2020.[43] [44]

On January 27, 2021, Episerver announced that they were rebranding the combined company as Optimizely. On March 22, 2021, Optimizely acquired Zaius, a Customer Data Platform.[45] On December 6, 2021, Optimizely acquired Welcome, a marketing orchestration platform.[46]

Software

Optimizely offers experimentation products (Web Experimentation and Feature Experimentation), CMS (both SaaS and PaaS), a Content Marketing Platform, a Customer Data Platform and an Email Campaign Tool.

Awards and recognition

Optimizely was recognized as a Red Herring Top 100 North America 2013 Finalist.[47] The same year, it was recognized as a Finalist for the Digital Analytics Association New Technology of the Year Awards for Excellence 2013[48] and The Forrester Wave Seven Most Significant Online Testing Platform Providers 2013.[49] Optimizely CEO Dan Siroker was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2013.[50] The company was listed on San Francisco Business Times Best Place To Work list in 2014 and 2015.[51] [52] Optimizely is a featured keynote alongside Retail expert Blake Van Leer at the 2023 LA eCommerce Summit.[53] [54]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Laurie Segall. Optimizely aims to give Obama 2012 a data edge. Segall. Laurie. 23 April 2012. CNN. 7 February 2014.
  2. Web site: YC-Funded Optimizely Makes It Remarkably Easy To Run A/B Tests On Your Website . TechCrunch . July 15, 2010 . August 29, 2013 .
  3. Web site: Celebrities (but not Ashton Kutcher) share their top cloud & infrastructure picks at Y . VentureBeat . 2013 . August 29, 2013 .
  4. Web site: Laurie Segall. Optimizely aims to give Obama 2012 a data edge. Segall. Laurie. 23 April 2012. CNN. 7 February 2014.
  5. Web site: YC-Funded Optimizely Makes It Remarkably Easy To Run A/B Tests On Your Website . TechCrunch . July 15, 2010 . August 29, 2013 .
  6. Web site: Celebrities (but not Ashton Kutcher) share their top cloud & infrastructure picks at Y . VentureBeat . 2013 . August 29, 2013 .
  7. Web site: Laurie Segall. Optimizely aims to give Obama 2012 a data edge. Segall. Laurie. 23 April 2012. CNN. 7 February 2014.
  8. Web site: YC-Funded Optimizely Makes It Remarkably Easy To Run A/B Tests On Your Website . TechCrunch . July 15, 2010 . August 29, 2013 .
  9. Web site: Celebrities (but not Ashton Kutcher) share their top cloud & infrastructure picks at Y . VentureBeat . 2013 . August 29, 2013 .
  10. Web site: Rodriguez . Michael . Optimizely Acquires Zaius To Improve Digital Experience Creation . Demand Gen Report . 7 April 2021 . 22 March 2021.
  11. News: Optimizely raises $50 million to expand its A/B testing and experimentation platform. 2019-06-18. VentureBeat. en-US. 2020-07-27.
  12. Web site: Episerver Completes Acquisition of Optimizely. MarTech Advisor. October 21, 2020. October 21, 2020.
  13. Web site: Ha . Anthony . Following acquisition, Episerver rebrands as Optimizely . Techcrunch . February 6, 2021 . January 27, 2021.
  14. Web site: Laurie Segall. Optimizely aims to give Obama 2012 a data edge. Segall. Laurie. 23 April 2012. CNN. 7 February 2014.
  15. Web site: YC-Funded Optimizely Makes It Remarkably Easy To Run A/B Tests On Your Website . TechCrunch . July 15, 2010 . August 29, 2013 .
  16. Web site: Celebrities (but not Ashton Kutcher) share their top cloud & infrastructure picks at Y . VentureBeat . 2013 . August 29, 2013 .
  17. Web site: Yclist.com . 2013 . August 29, 2013 .
  18. Web site: Optimizely A/B Tests Its Way To $1.2 Million In Funding From A Roster Of Top Angels . TechCrunch . November 16, 2010 . August 29, 2013 .
  19. Web site: 2021-06-24 . Optimizely Raises $28 Million to go Global . 2022-05-31 . Optimizely . en.
  20. Web site: A/B Tester Optimizely Raises Funding From Battery And Google Ventures, Plans Mobile Launch . TechCrunch . May 30, 2012 . August 29, 2013 .
  21. Web site: Website Testing Service Optimizely Raises $28M Round Led By Benchmark, Plans Global Expansion . TechCrunch . April 10, 2013 . August 29, 2013 .
  22. Web site: Optimizely's Web Optimization Platform Now Available in Ten Languages . PR Newswire . April 25, 2013 . August 29, 2013 .
  23. Web site: Optimizely Brings Its A/B Testing Platform To iOS Apps . TechCrunch . April 17, 2014 . April 13, 2015 .
  24. Web site: Website Testing Company Optimizely Raises $57M Round Led By Andreessen Horowitz . TechCrunch . May 5, 2014 . May 17, 2014 .
  25. Web site: Optimizely Moves From Simple A/B Testing To Complex Personalization . Ben . Kepes . . July 17, 2015 . October 7, 2015 .
  26. Web site: Optimizely Moves Beyond Web And Mobile Testing With New Personalization Tools . TechCrunch . Anthony . Ha . July 17, 2015 . October 7, 2015 .
  27. Web site: Optimizely introduces new personalization capabilities for web and mobile . VentureBeat . Andrew . Jones . July 17, 2015 . October 7, 2015 .
  28. Web site: Testing Company Optimizely Raises $58M As It Moves Into Personalization . TechCrunch . October 13, 2015 . October 13, 2015 .
  29. Web site: Optimizely raises $58 million in latest funding . Reuters . October 13, 2015 . October 13, 2015 .
  30. Web site: San Francisco startup founded by former Googlers grabs $58 million in funding . San Francisco Business Times . October 13, 2015 . October 13, 2015 .
  31. Web site: Controlling Our Own Destiny By Dan Siroker. March 10, 2016 . March 10, 2016.
  32. Web site: Optimizely Is The Latest Big Startup To Announce Layoffs, And Likely Not The Last. . March 10, 2016.
  33. Web site: Optimizely: Meet Optimizely X. www.optimizely.com. 2016-10-26.
  34. The A/B Test: Inside The Technology That's Changing The Rules Of Business. Christian. Brian. 5 . Wired. 20 . 17 March 2015.
  35. News: Pete Koomen: The Quest for More Clicks. Mark. Milian. Bloomberg.com . 20 September 2012 . BusinessWeek. 17 March 2015.
  36. Web site: Ex-Googlers penetrating Silicon Valley startup hierarchy. Swift. Mike. San Jose Mercury News. 9 March 2011 . 17 March 2015.
  37. News: Man Crates Packages $3.1 Million Seed Round for Unusual Gifts for Men. Lizette. Chapman. 17 March 2015. Wall Street Journal. 3 March 2015 .
  38. Web site: Optimizely hires Jay Larson as its new CEO. Ha. Anthony. TechCrunch. 11 July 2017. 23 October 2017.
  39. News: Obama's second term is upending what we think we know about Washington. Klein. Ezra. The Washington Post. 17 March 2015.
  40. Web site: 30 Under 30: Technology. https://web.archive.org/web/20121231025600/http://www.forbes.com/pictures/lmf45fdij/dan-siroker/. dead. December 31, 2012. Victoria. Barret. Forbes. 17 March 2015.
  41. Web site: Optimizely Co-Founder Pete Koomen On Using The Art Of A/B Testing. Taylor. Colleen. 3 September 2013 . TechCrunch. 2 April 2015.
  42. Web site: Benchmark-backed Optimizely confirms it has laid off 15% of staff. Mascarenhas. Natasha. TechCrunch. 2020-07-15.
  43. Web site: Episerver to Acquire Optimizely for Digital Experiences. Cheddar. September 8, 2020. October 21, 2020.
  44. Web site: Episerver to Acquire Optimizely for Digital Experiences. TechCrunch. September 3, 2020. October 21, 2020.
  45. Web site: Vizard . Michael . Optimizely adds real-time customer data tracking with Zaius acquisition . VentureBeat . 22 March 2021 . 22 March 2021.
  46. Web site: Schwartz . Ben . DXP Optimizely Acquires Welcome to Improve Global Customer Experiences . CMSWire . 6 December 2021 . 6 December 2021.
  47. Web site: 2013 Top 100 North America: Finalists . Red Herring . 2013 . August 29, 2013 .
  48. Web site: Awards for Excellence 2013: Finalists . Digital Analytics Association . 2013 . August 29, 2013 .
  49. Web site: The Forrester Wave™: Online Testing Platforms, Q1 2013 . Forrester . February 13, 2013 . August 29, 2013 .
  50. Web site: 30 Under 30: Technology . https://web.archive.org/web/20121231025600/http://www.forbes.com/pictures/lmf45fdij/dan-siroker/ . dead . December 31, 2012 . Forbes . 2013 . August 29, 2013 .
  51. Web site: Best Places to Work 2014. 28 April 2014. San Francisco Business Times. 21 February 2019.
  52. Web site: Best Places to Work Q&A: Empowered employees fuel Optimizely's rise . San Francisco Business Times . April 14, 2015 . April 15, 2015.
  53. Web site: Los Angeles eCommerce Summit – Retail Summits . retailsummits.com.
  54. Web site: Shah . Lillian . Speakers announced for the Los Angeles eCommerce Summit . Benzinga . English.

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