Quixey

Quixey

Company type	Private
Industry	Software, Search engine software
Founded	2009 (2009)
Founder	Tomer Kagan, Liron Shapira
Defunct	February 2017 (2017-02)
Headquarters	Mountain View , United States
Key people	Tomer Kagan (Chief Strategy Officer, former CEO), Liron Shapira (Chief Science Officer)
Products	Natural language search engine for mobile apps
Number of employees	30 (2012)

Quixey was a privately held firm located in Mountain View, California, focused on developing a natural language search engine that enabled users to discover mobile apps based on their functionalities rather than their names. In 2015, the company raised $60 million in funding, which valued it at around $600 million. Nevertheless, Quixey discontinued its operations in February 2017.

History

Founded in 2009 by Tomer Kagan (who served as Chief Strategy Officer and former CEO) and Liron Shapira (Chief Science Officer), Quixey dedicated 18 months to product development. The company established a partnership with federated search provider Ask.com in December 2012, and by January 2013, it was processing close to 100 million queries each month. Its first revenue model, introduced in June 2013, involved sponsored search results.

In early 2016, several top executives left the company after it failed to meet revenue expectations. This preceded Quixey’s closure in February 2017.

Funding

At inception, Quixey obtained $400,000 in seed capital led by Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors. In August 2011, the firm completed a $3.8 million Series A financing led by U.S. Venture Partners and WI Harper Group, with additional investment from Webb Investment Network and Innovation Endeavors. By June 2012, Quixey secured $20 million through a Series B round, expanding its workforce from six to thirty employees.

Partners

Quixey collaborated with Ask.com, which accounted for 3% of U.S. search traffic in 2012, powering its app search starting December 4, 2012. Additionally, the company supplied app search technology for Sprint via Sprint Digital Lounge and Sprint Zone locations.

Quixey Challenge

To recruit engineering talent, Quixey initiated the Quixey Challenge—a coding competition rewarding participants who resolved software bugs within one minute. In December 2011, this contest identified 38 winners, five of whom became leading candidates for job openings.