Wix

Wix.com is an Israeli-based software company that offers cloud-based web development services with offices in Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Ireland, Lithuania, the United States, and Ukraine. Wix offers a solution to create HTML5 and mobile websites with easy drag and drop tools. Wix also allows users to add social plug-ins, e-commerce, online marketing, contact forms, e-mail marketing, and community forums to their websites. The company’s website builder includes both free and premium options.

Wix was founded in 2006 by developers Avishai Abrahami, Nadav Abrahami, and Giora Kaplan. The company was backed by investors Insight Venture Partners, Mangrove Capital Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, DAG Ventures, and Benchmark Capital. Wix launched its beta phase in 2007 with an Adobe Flash-based platform.

A few years later, in 2009 the company reached 1 million users, and by the April of 2010 3.5 million users and raised $10 million in Series C funding led by Benchmark Capital and existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners and Mangrove Capital Partners. The following year, the company had 8.5 million users and raised $40 million in Series D funding, bringing its total to $61 million.

In 2011, the company became the first to enter the social commerce trend with the launch of its Facebook store module. In 2012, the company introduced an app market to allow users to sell applications built with Wix’s automated web development technology. In 2013, the platform had over 34 million users and decided to file for IPO.

In 2014, Wix launched the WixHive API, allowing Wix apps within a user website to capture and share their visitor data with other installed apps, Wix Hotels, a booking system for hotels, bed, and breakfasts, and vacation rentals that use Wix websites, Wix Music in 2015 a platform for musicians to market and sell their music, and Wix Restaurants in 2016. As of 2020, Wix has over 180 million registered users from 190 different countries.