Many creatives have used their pandemic downtime to start a podcast, publish a weekly newsletter or teach an online class in an area of their expertise. Irvine-based company Kajabi is providing creators with the digital infrastructure to monetize their new ventures.
The company announced Tuesday that it raised $550 million in fresh financing to continue supporting creatives on their business journeys. The latest raise, led by Tiger Global, puts the unicorn’s valuation at over $2 billion. The giant round comes about as the pandemic has given an extra boost to online businesses.
Kajabi’s platform acts as a one-stop shop for customers to build and grow their businesses via a subscription-based service. The company also offers its users a website building tool and a range of ready-to-use business playbooks and email templates.
“Kajabi reduces the administrative burden of having to cobble together different software tools with an easy-to-use platform that saves our customers time and money, which they can reinvest into growing their businesses,” Kenny Rueter, the company’s CEO and co-founder, said in a statement.
The platform has proven to be successful thus far. Business owners on Kajabi have generated more than $1.5 billion in gross merchandise volume annually and have grown more than 150 percent in the last year, according to the company.
Founded in 2010, Kajabi has served nearly 50 million customers to date. Following the raise, Kajabi plans to invest in product development as it continues to expand internationally.
Over the past two years, Kajabi has seen extraordinary amounts of growth. The company has quadrupled its headcount since the beginning of 2019, and more than doubled in size in 2020 alone.
Kajabi will extend its hiring momentum well into this year. The company is now hiring for its engineering, product and marketing teams, to name a few. Both in-person and remote positions are currently up for grabs.
Additional investors TPG, Tidemark, Owl Rock Capital and Meritech Capital participated in the round, among others.
