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22-528: Squarespace, Inc. is an American website building and hosting company based in New York City . It provides software as a service for website building and hosting, and allows users to use pre-built website templates and drag-and-drop elements to create and modify webpages. In 2003, Anthony Casalena founded Squarespace as a blog hosting service while attending the University of Maryland, College Park . He

44-439: A return on investment through one of the following avenues: Private equity firms characteristically make longer-hold investments in target industry sectors or specific investment areas where they have expertise. Private equity firms and funds differ from hedge fund firms which typically make shorter-term investments in securities and other more liquid assets within an industry sector, with less direct influence or control over

66-450: A mature European private equity market emerged. Private equity companies, acting as general partners with investors as limited partners , acquire a controlling or substantial minority position in a company and then look to maximize the value of that investment. Strategies include leveraged buyout (with borrowed capital), venture capital (for start ups), and growth capital (mature companies). Private equity firms generally receive

88-951: A small grant from the university, and 300 beta testers who paid a discounted rate. At that time, Casalena was the company's sole developer and employee, and worked out of his dorm room. By the time Casalena graduated in 2007, Squarespace was making annual revenues of $ 1 million. He moved to New York City, began hiring, and had 30 employees by 2010. That year, Squarespace received $ 38.5 million in its first round of venture capital funding led by Index Ventures and Accel Partners , enabling it to hire more staff, continue to develop its software, and double its marketing budget. From 2009 to 2012, it grew an average of 266% in yearly revenue. In April 2014, it received another $ 40 million in funding. By 2015, it had reached $ 100 million in revenue and 550 employees. Squarespace purchased Super Bowl advertising spots in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. Its 2017 ad won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Commercial. In 2017, it signed

110-630: A sponsorship deal with the New York Knicks to add the Squarespace logo to their uniforms. After the Unite the Right rally in 2017, Squarespace received a petition with 58,000 signatures and removed a group of websites for violating its terms of service against "bigotry or hatred" towards demographic groups. In 2017, it raised an additional $ 200 million in funding, boosting its value to $ 1.7 billion. This funding

132-630: Is managed by CEO and Founder Anthony Casalena. Other key executives are: As of November 2022, Squarespace had more than four million subscriptions. Its users employ pre-built website templates, and a variety of drag and drop widgets to add elements such as text and images. Its developers also create custom templates that are sold to users. On-screen instructions walk users through things like search engine optimization and setting up e-commerce . Its services are in direct competition with WordPress.com , Wix.com , Webflow.com , Weebly, Pixpa, Strikingly and other digital website building agencies. Squarespace

154-429: Is used by 1.9% of the top 10 million websites. Casalena began developing Squarespace for his personal use while attending the University of Maryland . He started sharing it with friends and family members and participated in a "business incubator" program at the university. In January 2004, he launched Squarespace as do it yourself / drag and drop website builder for the public, with a $ 30,000 seed fund from his father,

176-580: The Google Domains business, including approximately 10 million registered domain names. Website builder The first website, manually written in HTML , was created on August 6, 1991. Over time, software was created to help design web pages. For example, Microsoft released FrontPage in November 1995. By 1998, Dreamweaver had been established as the industry leader; however, some have criticized

198-517: The broader private equity industry two distinct sub-industries, leveraged buyouts and venture capital , grew along parallel tracks. In its early years through to roughly the year 2000, the private equity and venture capital asset firms were primarily active in the United States. With the second private equity boom in the mid-1990s and liberalization of regulation for institutional investors in Europe,

220-534: The company at $ 10 billion. Squarespace agreed to be acquired for $ 6.9 billion and taken private by British private equity firm Permira in May 2024. Permira increased its offer to $ 7.2 billion after the proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services recommended that Squarespace shareholders reject the original offer, which undervalued the company. The acquisition was finalized in October 2024. Squarespace

242-601: The company bought hospitality industry management platform Tock for more than $ 400 million. In early 2021, the company filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to go public through direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "SQSP". In March 2021, Squarespace raised $ 300 million in a round of funding led by Dragoneer , Tiger Global , D1 Capital Partners and Fidelity Management & Research Company with participation from existing investors. This funding round valued

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264-412: The industry has developed and matured substantially since it was invented, there has been criticism of private equity firms because they have pocketed huge and controversial profits while stalking ever larger acquisition targets. The history of private equity firms has occurred through a series of boom-and-bust cycles since the middle of the 20th century with significant growth since the 1980s. Within

286-507: The majority of a publicly listed company and delists the firm after the purchase. To complete its investments, a private equity firm will raise funds from large institutional investors, family offices and others pools of capital (eg also other private-equity funds ) which supply the equity . The money raised, often pooled into a fund, will be invested in accordance with one or more specific investment strategies including leveraged buyout , venture capital , and growth capital . Although

308-800: The operations of a specific company. Where private equity firms take on operational roles to manage risks and achieve growth through long-term investments, hedge funds more frequently act as short-term traders betting on the up or down sides of a business or of an industry sector's financial health. According to Private Equity International 's PEI 300 ranking, the largest private equity firms include The Blackstone Group , Kohlberg Kravis Roberts , EQT AB , Thoma Bravo , The Carlyle Group , TPG Capital , Advent International , Hg , General Atlantic , Warburg Pincus , Silver Lake , Goldman Sachs Principal Investment Group and Bain Capital . These firms are typically direct investors in companies rather than investors in

330-577: The private equity asset class, and for the most part the largest private equity investment firms focused primarily on leveraged buyouts rather than venture capital . Preqin ltd (formerly known as Private Equity Intelligence), an independent data provider, provides a ranking of the 25 largest private equity investment managers . Among the largest firms in that ranking were AlpInvest Partners , Ardian (formerly AXA Private Equity), AIG Investments , Goldman Sachs Private Equity Group, and Pantheon Ventures . Because private equity firms are continuously in

352-405: The quality of the code produced by such software as being overblown and reliant on HTML tables. As the industry moved towards W3C standards, Dreamweaver and others were criticized for not being compliant. Compliance has improved over time, but many professionals still prefer to write optimized markup by hand. Open source tools were typically developed to the standards and made fewer exceptions for

374-579: The then-dominant Internet Explorer's deviations from the standards. The W3C started Amaya in 1996 to showcase Web technologies in a fully featured Web client. This was to provide a framework that integrated many W3C technologies in a single, consistent environment. Amaya started as an HTML and CSS editor and now supports XML , XHTML , MathML , and SVG . GeoCities was one of the first more modern site builders that didn't require any technical skills. Five years after its launch in 1994 Yahoo! purchased it for $ 3.6 billion. After becoming obsolescent, it

396-596: Was earmarked for reacquiring interests from investors. In 2018, Squarespace partnered with the Madison Square Garden Company to launch the "Make It Awards", which awarded $ 30,000 to entrepreneurs (4 winners, totaling $ 120,000). Squarespace acquired appointment scheduling company Acuity Scheduling in April 2019. In October 2019, Squarespace acquired Unfold , an app founded by Alfonso Cobo that allows users to editorialize their social media content. In April 2021,

418-447: Was initially built for creating and hosting blogs . E-commerce features, such as integration with Stripe for accepting credit card payments, was added in 2013. In 2014, more commerce features were added; a mobile version of the service was released; a separate facility was added for developers writing custom templates and features; and a logo-creation app was introduced in partnership with icon designer Noun Project. In 2011, Squarespace

440-477: Was its only employee until 2006 when it reached $ 1 million in revenue. The company grew from 30 employees in 2010 to 550 by 2015. By 2014, it raised a total of $ 78.5 million in venture capital ; added e-commerce tools, domain name services, and analytics ; and replaced its coding backend with drag-and-drop features. It began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on May 19, 2021, and was taken private by Permira in October 2024. According to W3Techs, Squarespace

462-525: Was shut down in April 2009. Private equity firm A private equity firm or private equity company (often described as a financial sponsor ) is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of a startup or of an existing operating company with the end goal to make a profit on its investments. The target companies are generally privately owned entities (not publicly listed ), but it seldomly happens that private equity firms purchase

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484-535: Was upgraded to version 6, with new templates, a grid-based user interface, and other enhancements. Version 7, which went live in 2014, replaced its coding backend with a drag and drop interface, and added integration with Google Workspace (formerly G Suite and Google Apps for Work) and Getty Images . In 2016, Squarespace started selling domains , putting it in more direct competition with GoDaddy ; and added an analytics dashboard and PayPal integration. On June 15, 2023, Squarespace concluded an agreement to purchase

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