Optimizely

Optimizely

Company type	Private
Industry	Digital experience platform, web services, software
Founded	January 2010 (2010-01)
Founder	Dan Siroker, Pete Koomen
Headquarters	United States
Area served	Global
Key people	Alex Atzberger (CEO), Shafqat Islam (CMO), Myles Johnson (CFO)
Number of employees	1400+ (2024)
Website	www.optimizely.com

Optimizely is a U.S.-based firm delivering a digital experience platform as a service. Its core expertise lies in A/B and multivariate experimentation, tailored website personalization, feature flag management, web content administration, and digital commerce technologies.

Following its acquisition by Episerver in October 2020, the merged organization adopted the "Optimizely" brand in January 2021, strengthening its leadership in the digital experience optimization sector.

Established in January 2010 by entrepreneurs Dan Siroker and Pete Koomen, Optimizely maintains a global presence with a workforce exceeding 1,400 employees as of May 2024. The company's executive team includes CEO Alex Atzberger, CMO Shafqat Islam, and CFO Myles Johnson. Its main offices are located in the United States.

History

Dan Siroker and Pete Koomen, both formerly of Google, founded Optimizely in 2010. That year, the company participated in the Y Combinator seed accelerator program and secured $1.2 million from angel investors. By 2011, it had achieved positive cash flow. In May 2012, additional capital was raised from Battery Ventures, GV, and InterWest Partners.

In April 2013, Optimizely completed a $28 million Series A funding round led by Benchmark Capital, with contributions from Bain Capital Ventures and existing backers. Peter Fenton of Benchmark joined the board during this period. The company also broadened its language support to include nine European languages.

The inaugural Opticon user conference was held in April 2014 alongside the launch of mobile app A/B testing capabilities. In May 2014, Optimizely raised $57 million in Series B funding led by Andreessen Horowitz; Scott Weiss joined the board at that time. By October 2015, the firm introduced its second major offering centered on mobile and web personalization and secured $58 million through a Series C round led by Index Ventures with participation from prominent venture investors such as Salesforce Ventures. Ilya Fushman became a board member then.

In March 2016, Optimizely reduced its workforce by approximately 10%. Later that year, it unveiled Optimizely X, an expanded platform encompassing web experimentation, personalization tools, recommendation engines, mobile solutions, full stack development support, and OTT services.

In July 2017, Jay Larson succeeded Dan Siroker as CEO while Siroker transitioned to Executive Chairman. Pete Koomen served as CTO during the company’s formative years.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects, Optimizely implemented a 15% staff reduction in July 2020. Episerver announced its intent to acquire Optimizely in September 2020 and finalized the acquisition in October. The rebranding to Optimizely occurred in January 2021.

Optimizely further grew via acquisitions: it purchased Zaius (a Customer Data Platform) in March 2021; acquired Welcome (a marketing orchestration solution) in December 2021; and added NetSpring (a native-warehouse analytics platform) in September 2024.

Software

Optimizely offers an array of products including Web and Feature Experimentation tools, SaaS and PaaS Content Management Systems, a Content Marketing Platform, Customer Data Platform capabilities, and an Email Campaign solution — all designed to support digital experience optimization strategies.