Our Story

Back when the two of us started Netlify, it was with a strong belief that static sites, heavily based on Javascript, external APIs and markup (or, as we like to call it, JAMstack) should power the majority of all sites and apps. That still holds true today.

Over the last five years, we've seen the way frontend developers work change dramatically. Modern build-tools ranging from static site generators to JavaScript tooling like webpack and gulp have changed how web frontends are built. Git has emerged as the cornerstone of any modern developer's workflow, and modern browser API's have allowed us to shift most of the moving parts to the client. This brings the potential of building websites and apps that are faster, safer, cheaper and simpler.

So far, however, this approach has mostly been limited to small prototypes and personal developer projects on one hand, or large complicated proprietary solutions involving custom development on top of lots of different services on the other — way out of the reach of most normal agencies or developers.

We saw the need for a coherent workflow around this new stack, and Netlify was born. We created an infrastructure especially built to cater to the needs of these types of frontend driven projects and integrated a whole range of services on top of it. We worked to give our users a robust platform that combined the features, automation and performance needed to make a JAMstack approach the best option for a much wider range of sites.

As most founders, we felt we were meeting a need with the birth of Netlify. Nonetheless, nothing prepared us for how well received we were by the amazing community around the JAMstack and modern static websites.

Less than a year after launching, we were serving more than a quarter billion page views per month, running everything from personal sites to large company sites and apps. We knew that to take the next step we needed an awesome team and to find likeminded investors.

The Round

We almost can't believe the fortune we've had in bringing together some of the greatest people in the space, who have now joined us for the next chapter of this adventure.

Amongst them are Adam Wiggins (founder of Heroku) Tom Preston-Werner, (founder of GitHub, creator of Gravatar, Toml, Semantic Versioning and of course Jekyll: the most popular static site generator), Todd Morey (founder of Rackspace Cloud and Creative Director of Openstack) and several other founders in the space. The exciting new fund, Tank Hill Ventures, stepped up to lead the round together with Ohad Eder-Pressman, and they were joined by Bloomberg Beta and Designer Fund.

In addition, we're also thrilled to join Heavybit, a prestigious program for developer-focused companies.

A key denominator amongst our investors was a strong belief both in the shift towards a git-centric approach to web publishing, and in supplying large parts of the product as open source services that are meant to push the category forward. No one is playing the short game. We’re here because we believe in a modern web where sites don’t have to be built every time they are visited. We believe developers should get to choose the programming language of their build tools, and not have it dictated by a client's choice of CMS. We believe websites should be fast, secure, cheap to scale, and simple to build and maintain.

Momentum

With this funding, we’ve been able to bring onboard a dedicated and passionate world-class founding team that we are proud to be working with. Not only that, we have also brought together an incredible group of people in the industry to contribute to our open-source and build-tool agnostic Netlify CMS.

In the last month or so, all that hard work and team changes have really started to pay off. Recently we've been able to give you Deep Git Integration, Deploy Previews and free use of our Pro Plan for open-source projects! We’re now able to deliver a continuous flow of new updates to Netlify, and we’ll keep doing so. Keep your eyes peeled for what’s to come; we couldn’t be more excited.

Thank You

This all starts and ends with you, the developer using our products and services, and participating in driving the community forward. There wouldn't be a Netlify without you, so truly, sincerely – Thank you!

Matt & Chris

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