Alven’s portfolio company Algolia, the leading API Platform for Search & Dynamic Experiences, has closed $150 million in series D funding led by Lone Pine Capital at a post-money valuation of $2.25 billion. The round also includes funding from Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, STEADFAST Capital Ventures, Glynn Capital, Twilio, and existing investors including Accel and Salesforce Ventures. This latest funding round brings Algolia’s total funding to $315 million.
“The future is API-first — a reality underscored by the growth seen by Twilio, Stripe, Algolia, and others in the API economy. A huge part of our success has, and will continue to be, our relentless focus on developers with our product-led growth (PLG) strategy — enabling them to build search into their websites and apps, so they create the most relevant and dynamic digital experiences,” said Bernadette Nixon, CEO of Algolia. “And we’re excited to continue to solve customers’ problems as we continue to expand beyond search with Algolia Recommend and Predict.”
This latest investment reflects Algolia’s hypergrowth fueled by increased demand for “building block” API software that enhances developer productivity, the growth in e-commerce, and industry-wide acceleration of digital transformation.
“Algolia helps power developers’ search and content discovery capabilities with an API-first approach that can be applied to SaaS applications and e-commerce, as well as enterprise applications across industries,” said Mala Gaonkar, portfolio manager and managing director at Lone Pine Capital. “This new way of software development is an important innovation for businesses, as it helps developers more easily build digital experiences on top of Algolia’s APIs rather than implementing and maintaining a complex backend — allowing businesses to more quickly adapt to their customers’ evolving needs. We look forward to partnering with Algolia’s leadership to help the company expand and serve increased demand for its exceptional products.”
This additional investment allows Algolia to scale, serve the increased demand for the company’s Search and Recommendations products, and fuel the company’s continued global expansion into adjacent markets and use cases.
“The amazing thing about software is that you can continually iterate on it and Algolia’s API-first approach ensures that companies can build amazing experiences and great digital products, and create a cycle of continuous improvement,” continued Nixon. “Companies such as Under Armour, NBC Universal, Société Générale, Stripe, and many others are taking this approach and are the ones winning the hearts, minds, and wallets of their customers.”
The Future is Dynamic, Personalized, and API-First
The way companies develop software has changed. Forward-looking companies have realized that applications based on opaque SaaS solutions lack flexibility and old school monolithic platforms can be costly, time-intensive, and outdated. Algolia has expanded beyond search to become a multi-product company that empowers developers with its API platform to create composable applications that deliver rich, personalized, and dynamic digital experiences in real-time to consumers and employees.
New Company Vision, Boosted Innovation
This new funding round caps a landmark year that saw significant growth and product innovation. Algolia launched with the goal of creating fast, instant, and relevant search and discovery experiences that surfaced the desired information quickly. Earlier this year, the company announced its new vision for dynamic experiences, advancing beyond search to empower businesses to quickly predict a visitor’s intent on their digital property in real time, in the session, and in the moment. The business, armed with this visitor intent, can surface dynamic content in the form of search results, recommendations, offers, in- app notifications, and more — all while respecting privacy laws and regulations.
Meanwhile, the company added seven leaders to its executive suite in the last 18 months, with the appointment of Bernadette Nixon (chief executive officer, formerly of Alfresco), in addition to Michelle Adams (chief revenue officer, formerly of Dropbox), Carlton Baab (chief financial officer, formerly of Alfresco), Piyush Patel (chief business development officer, formerly of Capgemini), Jim Schattin (chief customer officer, formerly of Alteryx), Jason McClelland (chief marketing officer, formerly of Salesforce and Adobe), and Bharat Guruprakash (chief product officer, formerly of Twilio).
Alven backed Algolia since its $1.5m seed round in 2013 and remains the second-largest shareholder after Accel.