Today, we’re marking a major milestone in our mission to improve online conversations.
In 2012, we started the company that would become OpenWeb. Every year since, we have seen amazing growth. We’ve partnered with some of the world’s biggest and most respected publishers and helped them build loyal, safer communities that drive real value. This has enabled us to make an incredible impact, improving millions of conversations across a network of over 100M monthly active users.
Today, we’re entering a new phase as a company—one where we can make an even greater impact on the web.
We’re excited to announce that we have raised a $150M Series E round of investment, led by Insight Venture Partners, Georgian, and a few of the most well-known names in media and technology: Omer Cygler, Harel, and Entrée Capital, and Professor Scott Galloway. Also joining the round as strategic investors are The New York Times Company, Dentsu, and Samsung Next.
This investment will power our efforts to create a safer, democratized alternative to existing social media platforms by empowering publishers and brands across verticals with tools to build strong, first-party data relationships with their audiences. This will be even more crucial as brands and publishers enter the cookieless world.
This investment brings OpenWeb’s total funding to $223M, propelling us to a valuation of over $1B—otherwise known as “unicorn” status.
With this investment, we’ll be able to advance on our mission with an expanded global presence and team. The new investment will help us level up our technology and build a decentralized and social layer of the Internet for publishers, brands, service providers, and nonprofits, as well as the opportunity to expand our global presence with new offices in Canada, APAC, and EMEA regions.
We’re excited to enter this new chapter, and to continue improving the quality of conversations online.
