Optimizely: What It Does, Who Runs It, Funding and News
Optimizely sells marketing software: content management, experimentation, commerce, personalization and analytics, plus AI agents for marketing teams. Dan Siroker and Pete Koomen founded it as an A/B testing startup in Y Combinator's Winter 2010 batch. Episerver bought it in 2020 and took its name. It is headquartered in New York City.
Optimizely is a marketing software company headquartered in New York City, according to its offices page. Its September 2026 releases describe it as "the AI platform for marketing", covering content management, content marketing, experimentation, commerce, personalization and analytics in one product (Optimizely release, September 1, 2026). Alex Atzberger is its CEO, according to its company page on October 27, 2026.
The company that carries the Optimizely name today is two businesses joined together. Optimizely began as an A/B testing startup in San Francisco, and Episerver, a content management company founded in Stockholm in 1994, bought it in 2020 and renamed itself Optimizely in January 2021. This page covers the combined company: its products, leaders, the money the original startup raised, the deals since the merger, and its product launches since September 2025.
Optimizely key facts
Detail | Source | |
|---|---|---|
Founded | 2009, by Dan Siroker and Pete Koomen | |
Accelerator | Y Combinator, Winter 2010 | |
Headquarters | New York City (119 Fifth Avenue) | |
Offices | 13 countries, including the US, Sweden, the UK, Germany, Australia and Vietnam | |
CEO | Alex Atzberger | |
Employees | More than 1,600 | |
Customers | More than 10,000 businesses, per its YC profile | |
Funding before the 2020 sale | More than $200 million in equity | |
Ownership | Bought by Episerver in 2020; Episerver was owned by Insight Partners | |
Email format | firstname.lastname@optimizely.com, as used by the media contacts in its press releases | |
Website |
TechCrunch dates the founding to 2009, and Y Combinator lists Optimizely in its Winter 2010 batch; the product launched in July 2010, TechCrunch reported that November. Other figures differ by source too. Optimizely's own company page says more than 1,600 employees, while its YC profile says nearly 1,500 across 21 offices and still gives San Francisco, where the startup began, as its location. The offices page names New York as headquarters.
What Optimizely does
Optimizely sells software that marketing and digital teams use to build, test and personalize websites and other customer experiences. The suite is called Optimizely One, and YC's page names H&M, PayPal, Zoom and Toyota among its customers. The main parts, as Optimizely's 2026 releases describe them:
- Content management and content marketing. The content tools of Episerver, a content management company (TechCrunch), plus campaign planning and asset management from Welcome, which Optimizely bought in 2021 (CMSWire).
- Experimentation. The A/B testing the original Optimizely was known for. Forrester named Optimizely a Leader in its Q3 2026 Wave for experience optimization (Optimizely release, August 17, 2026).
- Personalization and analytics. Personalization tools, and warehouse-native analytics from NetSpring, bought in 2024, which run on a customer's own data warehouse (Optimizely release, February 2026).
- Commerce. Commerce tools, including Optimizely B2B Commerce Cloud, named in the January 2021 rebrand announcement (Optimizely release).
- AI agents. Opal, its AI agent platform, which since September 2025 includes a library of ready-made agents, custom agents and drag-and-drop workflows (Agile Brand Guide, September 10, 2025). Optimizely's 2026 releases call it Optimizely Agent Platform. In August 2026 Optimizely added Virtual Teammates, AI coworkers with roles such as SEO & AI Search Analyst and Marketing Analyst (Optimizely release).
Who runs Optimizely
Alex Atzberger is Optimizely's CEO. He was already CEO of Episerver when it agreed to buy Optimizely in September 2020 (TechCrunch), and he leads the renamed company today. Optimizely's company page lists this leadership team on October 27, 2026:
Name | Role | Source |
|---|---|---|
Alex Atzberger | Chief Executive Officer | |
Shafqat Islam | President (since August 2024; previously CMO) | |
Rupali Jain | Chief Product Officer | |
Myles Johnson | Chief Financial Officer | |
Sebastiaan de Jong | Chief Revenue Officer | |
Aniel Sud | Chief Technology Officer | |
Peter Yeung | Chief Information Officer and Global Data Protection Officer | |
Allison Skidmore | Chief Customer Officer |
Shafqat Islam co-founded Welcome, which Optimizely bought in 2021, and was Optimizely's CMO before his promotion. When he was made president in August 2024 he took on product and engineering as well as marketing, CMSWire reported.
Optimizely's founders no longer run it. Dan Siroker was CEO until July 2017, when Jay Larson, formerly CEO of Birst, replaced him and Siroker became executive chairman (TechCrunch). Larson was still CEO at the time of the Episerver deal in 2020. Pete Koomen, the other co-founder, is now a General Partner at Y Combinator, according to YC's page.
Optimizely funding history
Before the sale, Optimizely raised more than $200 million from venture investors, TechCrunch reported in 2019. These are the rounds with amounts that TechCrunch reported at the time:
Round | Date | Amount | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
Angel round | November 2010 | $1.2 million | 21 angels, including Ron Conway, Chris Sacca and Naval Ravikant (TechCrunch) |
Series A | April 2013 | $28 million | Led by Benchmark, with Bain Capital Ventures, Battery Ventures, InterWest Partners and Google Ventures (TechCrunch) |
Series B | May 2014 | $57 million | Led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Benchmark and Bain Capital Ventures (TechCrunch) |
Series C | October 2015 | $58 million | Led by Index Ventures; total raised reached $146 million (TechCrunch) |
Series D | June 2019 | $50 million, plus a $55 million credit line from Bridge Bank | Led by Goldman Sachs Private Capital, with Accenture Ventures (TechCrunch) |
No valuation was disclosed for these rounds in the reports cited here.
How Episerver bought Optimizely and took its name
Episerver announced on September 3, 2020 that it would buy Optimizely, and did not disclose the price. A spokesperson told TechCrunch the deal was part cash and part stock. TechCrunch also reported that Insight Partners had bought Episerver from Accel-KKR in 2018 for $1.1 billion and was acting as a strategic adviser and sponsor on the deal.
On January 27, 2021, Episerver announced it was rebranding as Optimizely (Optimizely release). Insight Partners' website has an investment page for Optimizely. Optimizely has not published how its ownership is split, and none of the sources here show a stock market listing.
Optimizely acquisitions since 2021
Company | Announced | What it does | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
Zaius | March 2021 | Customer data platform that tracks user behavior in real time (VentureBeat) | Not disclosed |
Welcome | Late 2021 (reported December 6, 2021) | Marketing planning, resource management and digital asset management (CMSWire) | Not disclosed |
NetSpring | September 30, 2024 | Warehouse-native product and customer journey analytics (PR Newswire) | Not disclosed |
Optimizely news, 2025 to 2026
- September 10, 2025: At its Opticon event, Optimizely added agent libraries, custom agents and workflow tools to Opal. Alex Atzberger said the aim was to "move from hype to business benefit" (Agile Brand Guide).
- February 5, 2026: Optimizely said Gartner named it a Leader in the 2026 Magic Quadrant for Personalization Engines, for the second year in a row (Optimizely release).
- August 17, 2026: Forrester named Optimizely a Leader and a Customer Favorite in its Q3 2026 Wave for experience optimization solutions (Optimizely release).
- August 31, 2026: Optimizely launched Virtual Teammates at Opticon, in five launch roles: Chief of Staff, SEO & AI Search Analyst, Marketing Analyst, Personalization Strategist and CRO Manager (Optimizely release).
- September 1, 2026: Optimizely announced its own post-trained AI models for marketing and Mark-Bench, an open-source benchmark of 285 marketing tasks. The models are coming to Agent Platform customers (Optimizely release).
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Optimizely?
Dan Siroker and Pete Koomen founded Optimizely in 2009, according to TechCrunch. Y Combinator lists it in its Winter 2010 batch.
Who owns Optimizely?
Episerver bought Optimizely in 2020 and took its name in January 2021. Insight Partners had bought Episerver in 2018 and has an investment page for Optimizely on its website. Optimizely has not published its current ownership.
Is Optimizely a public company?
No stock market listing appears in any of the sources cited here. Since the 2020 deal, Optimizely has been the combined Episerver business, which Insight Partners owned at the time. Optimizely has not published its current ownership.
Who is the CEO of Optimizely?
Alex Atzberger is Optimizely's CEO. He ran Episerver before it bought Optimizely in 2020, and Optimizely's company page lists him as CEO in October 2026.
Where is Optimizely headquartered?
Optimizely's headquarters is at 119 Fifth Avenue in New York City, according to its offices page. It has offices in 13 countries, including Sweden, where Episerver started.
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