WordPress specialist
WP Engine has received a $250 million investment. With headquarters in Austin, Texas, United States, WP Engine offers a fully managed WordPress platform. Established in 2010, the company caters to 75,000 customers that include businesses of all sizes. It has offices in San Francisco, California and San Antonio, Texas, United States, and in London, United Kingdom. The investment will enable the company to extend its reach globally and develop its ‘Digital Experience Platform’.
Open Source (OS) WordPress is available free of charge and allows users to easily establish simple and complex websites, a fact that makes it especially popular with enterprises of all sizes. Originally a blogging solution, it is supported by a global community that offers commercial and non-commercial themes and ‘addons’ that improve a website’s look and feel, and changes functionality. WordPress underpins roughly 25% of all websites on the internet. With its focus on the platform WP Engine generates $100 million in annual recurring revenue. Its most recent investment was provided by California-based Silver Lake.
Silver Lake bills itself as “the global leader in technology investing, with about $39 billion in combined assets under management”. The company is “dedicated to the thesis that the dynamism and rapid pace of innovation in global technology demand intensely focused domain expertise”, and unlike other investment entities, invests in “the world’s leading technology companies and tech-enabled businesses”. It has a presence in Silicon Valley, New York, London, Hong Kong, and Tokyo, and joins other WP Engine investors, which include Automattic (the company that introduced WordPress) and investment companies GuidePost Growth Equity and Silverton.
“We are partnering with Silver Lake because of their incredible track record as technology investors, their understanding of digital platform businesses like ours and because of the alignment in core values we share,” suggested WP Engine’s CEO and Chairwoman Heather J. Brunner in press release. “This partnership will help us further invest in our Digital Experience Platform and bring the power of our platform to WordPress users all around the globe.”
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