WordPress.com Creator Raises $29.5M

Om Malik, Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 7:45 PM PT Comments (166)

Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automattic and creator of open-source blogging system WordPress, stopped by my apartment earlier this week. Matt, who is one of my closest friends, brought his Texan sense of humor and all-around good cheer, both of which were much needed following my little medical episode.

While we were chatting, he let it slip that Automattic had raised a whopping $29.5 million in a Series B Round of funding, including a strategic investment from The New York Times Co. Previous investors True Ventures, Polaris Ventures, and Radar Ventures also invested in this round. (Full disclosure: both Automattic and GigaOM are backed by True Ventures.)

Update: As part of this funding, some insiders including senior management whose options had vested were given an opportunity to cash out. The Wall Street Journal reports:

“Still, Automattic’s investors are taking pains to keep the company’s founders motivated: Some of the $29 million will be used to help company founders and others cash out some of their holdings in the private company, Mr. Black said. The practice has become more common in Silicon Valley as start-up founders spend longer building their companies without any payday.”

It is quite an event for the company, which began with Matt mucking around with code in his Houston bedroom. As one of the first adopters of WordPress, I got to know Matt well, yelling at him for not fixing bugs (which I still do) and always telling him what “features to add.” He took note of all it, and some of those features have actually shown up in the software. Eventually he moved out to San Francisco and started Automattic.

In recent months, Automattic’s premier offering, the free hosted blogging service WordPress.com, has started to grow by leaps and bounds. In addition to the 2.2 million blogs that it hosts (which generates, according to the latest trailing 30-day numbers from Quantcast, 42 million unique U.S. page views, 114 million global uniques and 482 million page views overall), WordPress.com is becoming an attractive option for media groups that don’t want to muck around with infrastructure. In addition to the GigaOM network of sites, CNN, Fortune and Fox are some of Automattic’s premier customers. Even more impressive (as far as I’m concerned) is that New York Yankees pitching star of the future, Phil Hughes, has a blog on WordPress.com as well.

So what does Automattic need the money for? After all, from what I know of the business, Automattic has been bubbling around the break-even point for a while now. Matt explains that they are going to roll out newer, hosted services such as BBPress (forums), and will expand their other product offerings, such as Gravatar and the spam-protection service Akismet. The money will be spent to hire more engineers and build out a more robust infrastructure.

That would be a start. Anne Zelenka made an impassioned case for using WordPress to build a social network, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some social features start to creep into WordPress.com as well. They just boosted their storage capacity to three gigabytes, which indicates that they are serious about allowing bloggers to add video and other multimedia content to their blogs.

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January 22nd, 2008
7:58 PM PT

[...] probably seen the news on GigaOM, Automattic has raised a new “series B” round of funding. We’re entering what I consider Act II of the Automattic story. I’ll talk about where [...]

January 22nd, 2008
8:02 PM PT

[...] 22, 2008 · No Comments As Om and Matt report, we closed a $29.5 million round of financing for Automattic today. Coincidentally, [...]

January 22nd, 2008
8:10 PM PT

[...] sources including Gigaom were used on this article. We promise we didn’t hurt any of them. Digg [...]

January 22nd, 2008
8:13 PM PT

[...] news for Automattic, and includes a strategic investment from The New York Times Company. Our bud Om Malik has all the details. Matt is one of the most genuine, affable, clever people I have had the [...]

January 22nd, 2008
8:38 PM PT

[...] to GigaOm, Automattic and blog/boy wonder Matt Mullenweg has raised $29.5-million from a group of investors [...]

January 22nd, 2008
8:43 PM PT

[...] has broken the news that Automattic, provider of the WordPress open-source blogging software and spam filter [...]

January 22nd, 2008
8:47 PM PT

[...] my friend Om Malik is reporting — and as founder Matt Mullenweg has confirmed on his blog — the company behind [...]

January 22nd, 2008
8:49 PM PT

[...] my friend Om Malik is reporting — and as founder Matt Mullenweg has confirmed on his blog — the company behind [...]

January 22nd, 2008
9:16 PM PT

[...] product offerings, such as Gravatar and the spam-protection service Akismet” according to GigaOm. The funding will go towards the hiring of more engineers to build out its [...]

January 22nd, 2008
9:19 PM PT

[...] has broken the news that Automattic, provider of the WordPress open-source blogging software and spam filter [...]

January 22nd, 2008
9:36 PM PT

[...] product offerings, such as Gravatar and the spam-protection service Akismet” according to GigaOm. The funding will go towards the hiring of more engineers to build out its [...]

January 22nd, 2008
9:47 PM PT

[...] run ads and make some quick bucks, but they are not doing it. Why do they need 30M then? OM Malik mentions about a social network on WP.com. That might be possible and one of the things they might be working on. However, I think [...]

January 22nd, 2008
9:57 PM PT
January 22nd, 2008
9:58 PM PT

[...] reports that Autmomattic the company behind the open-source blogging platform WordPress, Spam filter [...]

January 22nd, 2008
10:01 PM PT

[...] stopped by to see Om to talk about things and in doing so, intentionally or unintentionally shared that the company raised a round of funding led by TrueVentures. The round included a strategic [...]

January 22nd, 2008
10:03 PM PT

[...] GigaOm got news for us! Automatic founder raises 29.5 Millions dollars for WordPress no wonder they bump up storage to 3gb just few days ago! [...]

January 22nd, 2008
10:15 PM PT

[...] If you’re looking for a new opportunity, SingleFeed is hiring in all departments. We are backed by True Ventures and NetService Ventures, the VCs behind Meebo, WordPress, and Aggregate Knowledge. BTW, Automattic, which created WordPress just received $29.5m. The round was led by True. GigaOm, another True portfolio company broke the news. [...]

January 22nd, 2008
10:22 PM PT

[...] Malik has the scoop, including more details on the San Francisco company’s growth over the [...]

January 22nd, 2008
10:26 PM PT

[...] Matt, now Ma.tt1, and Toni have respectively written “Act Two”2 and “Automattic fundraising” about us, Automattic, raising a $29.5 million USD round of financing today. Our friend Om has a head start on journalistic coverage with “WordPress.com Creator Raises $29.5M“. [...]

January 22nd, 2008
10:41 PM PT
We Love WP said:

[...] who is one of my closest friends, brought his Texan sense of humor and all-around good cheer…read more No [...]

January 22nd, 2008
10:50 PM PT

[...] Matt Mullenweg’s post and from Gigaom, Automattic looks to be heading in a direction that will bring many improvements and services to [...]

January 22nd, 2008
11:01 PM PT

[...] VIEW ORIGINAL ARTICLE Add to del.icio.us • Digg this!   [...]

January 22nd, 2008
11:05 PM PT
January 22nd, 2008
11:19 PM PT

[...] big congratulations to Matt and the Automattic team on their series B financing. GigaOM has more details but perhaps the juiciest tidbit is on CEO Toni Schneider’s blog: “In addition to [...]

January 22nd, 2008
11:22 PM PT

[...] Auttomatic announced having raised $29.5 million for a minority [...]

January 22nd, 2008
11:32 PM PT

[...] Ventures is thrilled to announce its participation in Automattic’s Series B round of financing with co-investors Polaris Ventures and Radar Partners, as well as new strategic [...]

January 22nd, 2008
11:32 PM PT

[...] product offerings, such as Gravatar and the spam-protection service Akismet” according to GigaOm. The funding will go towards the hiring of more engineers to build out its [...]

January 22nd, 2008
11:55 PM PT

[...] has broken the news that Automattic, provider of the WordPress open-source blogging software and spam filter [...]

January 23rd, 2008
12:01 AM PT

[...] Read the rest of this post Print Sphere Comment Tagged: Matt Mullenweg, WordPress.com, Automattic | permalink [...]

January 23rd, 2008
12:06 AM PT

[...] Malik has the scoop, including more details on the San Francisco company’s growth over the [...]

January 23rd, 2008
12:07 AM PT

[...] Mercredi 23 janvier 2008 · No Comments Automattic connu notamment pour l’outil WordPress a levé 29.5 M$. [...]

January 23rd, 2008
12:28 AM PT

[...] success of blogging platform WordPress (which BloggerTalks incidentally uses) by Matt Mullenweg, have raised another $29.5m in funding, with The New York Times opening its wallet. Matt himself have a [...]

January 23rd, 2008
12:35 AM PT

[...] GigaOm skriver, at Automattic (folkene, der driver WordPress.com, Akismet, Gravatar, bbPress m.m.) har fået skudt endnu ca. 150 mio. kroner efter sig. Det skulle betyde, at der ikke blot kommer flere penge til udviklingen af WordPress, som vi bruger den, men også til de ovennævnte tjenester. Efter lang tids dvale vil lidt udviklingstid i især Gravatar og bbPress også være på plads: Matt explains that they are going to roll out newer, hosted services such as BBPress (forums), and will expand their other product offerings, such as Gravatar and the spam-protection service Akismet. The money will be spent to hire more engineers and build out a more robust infrastructure. [...]

January 23rd, 2008
1:05 AM PT

[...] product offerings, such as Gravatar and the spam-protection service Akismet” according to GigaOm. The funding will go towards the hiring of more engineers to build out its [...]

January 23rd, 2008
1:07 AM PT

[...] tech blogger Om Malik is slowly coming back from his “medical episode” as he calls it. Today he posts about WordPress.com’s parent company raising $29.5 Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automattic and [...]

January 23rd, 2008
1:30 AM PT

[...] GigaOm: WordPress creator raises $29.5 million [...]

January 23rd, 2008
1:57 AM PT

[...] WordPress (que nous utilisons pour TechCrunch) vient d’annoncer un second tour de table de 29.5 millions de dollars mené par True Ventures. D’autres investisseurs ont participé dont le New York Times, [...]

January 23rd, 2008
3:20 AM PT

[...] Bラウンドで$29.5M(2950万ドル)を調達した、というニュースをGigaOmが発表した。ラウンドにはThe New York Times、Polaris Ventures、Radar [...]

January 23rd, 2008
3:26 AM PT

[...] the fact that Automattic, the company behind WordPress and WordPress.com, secured a whopping $29.5m in funding. That is probably good news, right? I think so, since the founders will stay onboard and [...]

January 23rd, 2008
3:29 AM PT

[...] La primicia, como siempre, de Giga Om [...]

January 23rd, 2008
4:03 AM PT

[...] Om and Matt report, we closed a $29.5 million round of financing for Automattic today. Coincidentally, [...]

January 23rd, 2008
4:39 AM PT

[...] Matt de WordPress.com levanta $29.5 millones [...]

January 23rd, 2008
5:26 AM PT

[...] of the round are over at Matt’s and Toni’s blogs, and covered by GigaOm and The Wall Street [...]

January 23rd, 2008
5:29 AM PT

[...] provider of the WordPress open-source blogging software and spam filter Akismet, has raised $29.5M in a Series B round of financing led by True Ventures. Other participants in the round include The New York [...]

January 23rd, 2008
5:29 AM PT

[...] some of the $29.5 million will be used to allow some early employees and investors to cash out; GigaOm’s Om Malik suggested that the company may also hire more engineers, anticipating continued [...]

January 23rd, 2008
6:32 AM PT

[...] publisher of the open source blogging platform WordPress (which we use for ZDNet blogs) raised $29.5 million in a Series B Round with funding, True Ventures, Polaris Ventures, Radar Ventures and the New York [...]

January 23rd, 2008
6:36 AM PT

[...] some of the $29.5 million will be used to allow some early employees and investors to cash out; GigaOm’s Om Malik suggested that the company may also hire more engineers, anticipating continued [...]

January 23rd, 2008
7:26 AM PT

[...] to several sources this morning including close personal friend Om Malik to founder Matt Mullenweg, Automattic just raised nearly 30 million in a Series B Round of funding. [...]

January 23rd, 2008
7:41 AM PT

[...] Om reported yesterday that Automattic, which makes the blogging platform WordPress (which we use), just raised $29.5 million in a B-round of venture funding. It is a big deal for the blogging industry — one investor is The New York Times, just the latest warning flare over the bow of old media. (True Ventures, an Automattic investor, has also funded GigaOM.) [...]

January 23rd, 2008
8:02 AM PT

[...] of coverage including: wsj , GigaOM, new york times, ReadWriteWeb, toni, and matt (sporting his new ma.tt domain [...]

January 23rd, 2008
9:16 AM PT

[...] January 23, 2008 at 5:16 pm · Filed under bubble, dot com, forums, idiocy, wank Ah, they’re all celebrating being millionaires. [...]

January 23rd, 2008
9:56 AM PT

[...] WordPress.com Creator Automattic Raises $29.5 Million Series B GIGAOM Automattic has raised a $29.5 million second round led by True Ventures and including a strategic investment by the New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT). Previous investors Polaris Ventures and Radar Ventures also took part. Automattic is the parent of WordPress, WordPress.com, Akismet and other projects. The company raised $1.1 million from Polaris, Radar, CNET (NSDQ: CNET) Networks and others back in April 2006. Source> [...]

January 23rd, 2008
10:07 AM PT

[...] Matt Mullenweg, fondatorul platformei de blogging WordPress si seful de la Automattic, a anuntat ca a facut rost de 29,5 milioane de dolari in cadrul seriei B de finantare. Stirea vine de la GigaOM. [...]

January 23rd, 2008
10:30 AM PT

[...] Now a Video Publishing Tool In addition to receiving a generous new round of venture capital, Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com (and the backend provider for NewTeeVee and the rest [...]

January 23rd, 2008
10:33 AM PT

[...] you haven’t sent your resume to Matt Mullenweg this morning, why not? People with new funding (Matt just got almost $30 million) are the ones who are [...]

January 23rd, 2008
10:33 AM PT

[...] you haven’t sent your resume to Matt Mullenweg this morning, why not? People with new funding (Matt just got almost $30 million) are the ones who are [...]

January 23rd, 2008
11:02 AM PT
January 23rd, 2008
11:04 AM PT

[...] As seen on GigaOM, Automattic has raised a new “series B” round of funding. [...]

January 23rd, 2008
11:20 AM PT
Blogcosm said:

WordPress Act Two: $29.5M worth of identity, wikis, forums, and more

Automattic, the company behind the WordPress blogging platform, just raised $29.5 million. As is often the case, GigaOM has the scoop:

While we were chatting, he let it slip that Automattic had

January 23rd, 2008
12:47 PM PT

[...] WordPress.comCreator Raises $29.5M [...]

January 23rd, 2008
1:02 PM PT

[...] bbPress is still under version 1.0 (as of this writing, it’s at 0.8.3.1). You might think forums are dead, why not just Tweet away on a closed group channel or such. Although not the latest thing, forums are foundational. They are the web version of newsgroups and essential for large groups of people. As a lover of WordPress, I can’t wait to see bbPress develop and mature. Looks like others can’t either: Automattic raised $29.5 million in their Series B round of funding. [...]

January 23rd, 2008
1:30 PM PT

[...] to see WP raise series B round…Exciting…We are huge fans of WordPress here at [...]

January 23rd, 2008
2:42 PM PT

[...] noticia ya es vieja a esta hora y nos cuenta sobre la nueva inversión que recibió Auttomatic, la compañía dueña de WordPress, pero más interesante que la noticia en si, me pareció este [...]

January 23rd, 2008
3:19 PM PT

[...] WordPress.com Creator Raises $29.5M - GigaOM I started blogging on Blogger in 2001, but Om Malik talked me into hosting my own WordPress install in 2003. I haven’t looked back since.  I would declare WordPress to be the single best piece of software-technology-platform I have experienced in 30 years of fooling around with software — and that includes XyWrite (wordprocessor for pros in the DOS days), Civilization II (Sid Meier’s strategy game classic), and every other online service with the possible exception of Google Search. If anyone asks me what to do when they need to open a blog, I send them to wordpress.com. Automattic, the parent company, just raised its series B. If I were looking for a smart acquisition, Automattic would be on the short list. This technology has done more to revolutionize content creation and production, and democratized it, than anything previously seen. “It is quite an event for the company, which began with Matt mucking around with code in his Houston bedroom. As one of the first adopters of WordPress, I got to know Matt well, yelling at him for not fixing bugs (which I still do) and always telling him what “features to add.” He took note of all it, and some of those features have actually shown up in the software. Eventually he moved out to San Francisco and started Automattic.” [...]

January 23rd, 2008
3:31 PM PT

[...] WordPress.com Creator Raises $29.5M - GigaOM [...]

January 23rd, 2008
4:12 PM PT

[...] found of Automattic and creator of WordPress has raised 29.5 Million. Automattic had raised a whopping $29.5 million in a Series B Round of funding, including a [...]

January 23rd, 2008
4:12 PM PT

[...] Malik reported this evening that Automattic raised a $29.5 million Series B venture round led by Polaris Ventures, and [...]

January 23rd, 2008
4:52 PM PT

[...] WordPress.com Creator Raises $29.5M - GigaOM Interesting news, will we see Automattic taking on Ning and building a social network service to sit alongside the WordPress.com offering? (tags: wordpress funding social networks) [...]

January 23rd, 2008
5:07 PM PT

[...] - WordPress.com Creator Raises $29.5M - GigaOM Automattic had raised a whopping $29.5 million in a Series B Round of funding, including a [...]

January 23rd, 2008
5:11 PM PT

[...] eine Reihe von Schlagzeilen gesorgt, die am 22.01.08 ihren (vorläufigen) Höhepunkt erreichte. Om Malik kam als Erster mit der Meldung heraus, dass Automattic, die Firma hinter WordPress, sich in einer [...]

January 23rd, 2008
5:33 PM PT

[...] despre finantarea Automattic (compania de care apartine WordPress) o puteti citi aici Post Tags: automattic, funding, WordPress My previous post :Bloggeri si Ion Iliescu My next post [...]

January 23rd, 2008
5:46 PM PT

[...] read more | digg story [...]

January 23rd, 2008
6:26 PM PT

[...] is indicative of NYT’s commitment to exploring and building its Social Media foundation. Update: As part of this funding, some insiders including senior management whose options had vested were [...]

January 23rd, 2008
6:42 PM PT

[...] For a more detailed article, head over to GigaOM [...]

January 23rd, 2008
6:47 PM PT

[...] read more | digg story [...]

January 23rd, 2008
7:57 PM PT

[...] “life change” mentioned in a recent twitter. This comes in the wake of a recent $29.5 million round of funding. Matt Mullenweg is the founder and creator of Automattic, the maker of wordpress, the blogging [...]

January 23rd, 2008
8:33 PM PT

[...] WordPress.com Creator Raises $29.5M - GigaOM While we were chatting, he let it slip that Automattic had raised a whopping $29.5 million in a Series B Round of funding, including a strategic investment from The New York Times Co. Previous investors True Ventures, Polaris Ventures, and Radar Ventures also invested in this round. [...]

January 23rd, 2008
9:04 PM PT

[...] just got a truckload of money. NYTimes is now an [...]

January 23rd, 2008
9:16 PM PT

[...] founder Matt Mullenweg just received $29.5m in series B funding. Wow, a lot of [...]

January 23rd, 2008
10:26 PM PT

[...] you remain skeptical then you MUST read Om Malik’s awesome article “WordPress.com Creator Raises $29.5M” which gives the story of creator Matt Mullenweg and his role in the explosion of the [...]

January 23rd, 2008
11:51 PM PT
January 24th, 2008
1:37 AM PT
January 24th, 2008
2:49 AM PT

[...] Company. Many other have reported on this round of funding, so take a look at what has been said at GigaOM, RWW and [...]

January 24th, 2008
3:16 AM PT

[...] some of the $29.5 million will be used to allow some early employees and investors to cash out; GigaOm’s Om Malik suggested that the company may also hire more engineers, anticipating continued [...]

January 24th, 2008
4:15 AM PT

WordPress.com Creator Raises $29.5M | Deliggit.com

gigaom.com

Automattic had raised a whopping $29.5 million in funding.

[â¦] WordP

January 24th, 2008
5:00 AM PT

[...] Automattic has raised a US$29.5 million in Series B funding to position the company to execute on our vision of a better web not just in blogging [...]

January 24th, 2008
6:22 AM PT

[...] about Utterz. I also gush a little bit about WordPress/Automattic/Mullenweg and <a href="http://gigaom.com/…aises-29m/">the funding announcement</a>.Mobile post sent by ccarmichael using [...]

January 24th, 2008
11:54 AM PT

[...] received $29.6 million in series B round funding from none other than the New York Times Company (source GigaOm). The company was started by fellow Texan and photo enthusiast Matt Mullenweg working from his [...]

January 24th, 2008
11:56 AM PT

[...] received $29.6 million in series B round funding from none other than the New York Times Company (source GigaOm). The company was started by fellow Texan and photo enthusiast Matt Mullenweg working from his [...]

January 24th, 2008
3:43 PM PT

[...] WordPress consigue $29.5 de inversion (New York Times entre los inversionistas) [...]

January 24th, 2008
3:52 PM PT

[...] WordPress consigue $29.5 de inversion (New York Times entre los inversionistas) [...]

January 24th, 2008
5:19 PM PT

[...] just celebrated his 24th birthday, Mullenweg is pinching himself extra-hard these days. He recently closed on $29.5 million in funding for Automattic, part of which he wants to use to do for forums what WordPress.com has done for [...]

January 24th, 2008
5:47 PM PT

[...] the rest of you here are some links that cover the [...]

January 24th, 2008
6:04 PM PT

[...] owners get another $29 million in round B funding. I would love to be in round [...]

January 25th, 2008
3:13 AM PT

[...] WordPress consigue $29.5 de inversion (New York Times entre los inversionistas) [...]

January 25th, 2008
8:55 AM PT

[...] from bramus.be to bram.us Q2 2005 * … monkey see, monkey do? (jk) Now if only I were to raise $29.5M too Spread the [...]

January 25th, 2008
9:09 AM PT

[...] was that WordPress’ parent company, Automattiq, got some nice funding from amongst others, The New York… which is a good indication of the support there is for this popular blogging platform with the many [...]

January 25th, 2008
9:57 AM PT

[...] grupo de inversionistas entre los que destaca The New York Times han invertido $29.5 millones de dólares en WordPress.com. Justamente el día antes de esta noticia, WordPress.com aumentó su almacenamiento gratuito de [...]

January 25th, 2008
3:29 PM PT

[...] de Matt Mullenweg que gestiona WordPress.com, Akismet y Gravatar; ha recibido la cantidad de 29.5 millones de dólares en su segunda ronda de inversión por parte de New York Times Co; en la primera ronda figuran Polaris, True y Radar [...]

January 26th, 2008
7:46 AM PT

[...] some of the $29.5 million will be used to allow some early employees and investors to cash out; GigaOm’s Om Malik suggested that the company may also hire more engineers, anticipating continued [...]

January 27th, 2008
8:25 PM PT

[...] Steve thinks that a Google/New York Times marriage would be too much of a culture shock for the folks at the Times. John thinks not - the NYT has been making numerous investments including its most recent investment in Automattic. [...]

January 29th, 2008
6:46 AM PT

[...] blog WordPress (que nous utilisons pour TechCrunch) vient d’annoncer un second tour de table de 29.5 millions de dollars mené par True Ventures. D’autres investisseurs ont participé dont le New York Times, Polaris [...]

January 29th, 2008
9:04 AM PT

[...] the company that created WordPress, just raised $29.5 million in Series B funding. The New York Times is among the [...]

January 30th, 2008
12:28 AM PT

[...] Software WordPress get funding –go social Automatic, the parent company behind wildly popular wordpress blogging software has received $29.5M in funding, (that’s a lot), which will likely develop social features, including a social networking [...]

January 30th, 2008
6:09 PM PT

[...] StumbleUpon edging out Digg in popularity among bloggers bloggers? A recent online survey listed StumbleUpon as the most popular social bookmarking site, with the rest trailing far behind. [...]

January 30th, 2008
6:22 PM PT

[...] StumbleUpon edging out Digg in popularity among bloggers bloggers? A recent online survey listed StumbleUpon as the most popular social bookmarking site, with the rest trailing far behind. [...]

February 1st, 2008
7:48 AM PT

[...] Windows Live Spaces was once reported to be the largest blogging platform, and Yahoo 360 is also notable in the space. Google already has the widely used Blogger platform. Lately though, WordPress is really the one to beat in this market, especially with their latest round of funding lead by the New York Times. [...]

February 5th, 2008
10:20 PM PT

[...] Matt Mullenweg said with a grin in response to the question about Automattic’s recent $29M funding round. Interestingly enough, this funding trails the initial investment of $1M that wasn’t fully [...]

February 5th, 2008
11:29 PM PT

[...] Matt Mullenweg said with a grin in response to the question about Automattic’s recent $29M funding round. Interestingly enough, this funding trails the initial investment of $1M that wasn’t fully [...]

February 5th, 2008
11:30 PM PT

[...] Matt Mullenweg said with a grin in response to the question about Automattic’s recent $29M funding round. Interestingly enough, this funding trails the initial investment of $1M that wasn’t fully [...]

February 6th, 2008
8:39 PM PT

[...] WordPress creator raises 29M Added on 01/24/2008 at 08:12AM WordPress creator raises 29M [...]

February 9th, 2008
11:37 AM PT

[...] bbPress is looking up. I trust Matt and co. will continue building upon the software with an extra $29.5 million laying [...]

February 12th, 2008
3:16 AM PT

[...] reported earlier today that WordPress firm Automattic has raised $29.5 million in a Series B Round of [...]

February 13th, 2008
4:12 AM PT
March 1st, 2008
5:14 AM PT

[...] to like WordPress (especially if you’re a blogger!) but after its parent, Automattic, raised $29.5-million earlier this year, there was a fair bit of head-scratching out why it needed so much dough and how [...]

March 2nd, 2008
10:51 PM PT

[...] this year, NYT co-invested with a few venture capital funds in San Francisco-based Automattic. Automattic’s primary product is the blogging platform known as WordPress. WordPress software [...]

March 4th, 2008
12:58 PM PT

[...] behind WordPress.com hosted service raised a whopping $29.5 million in VC funding recently, I speculated that they might be adding social networking features to there [...]

March 5th, 2008
2:23 AM PT

[...] ini tentu membuat banyak orang penasaran, setelah beberapa waktu yang lalu wordpress.com mendapat pendanaan sebesar 29,5 juta dolar, belum lagi beberapa waktu yang lalu menambah kapasitas quota untuk tiap user menjadi 3Gb dari [...]

March 29th, 2008
10:04 AM PT

[...] I would normally take this post to push through a narrative on WordPress’ success, though $29 million is too much to cover here at [...]

March 29th, 2008
10:53 AM PT

[...] the creators of WordPress.com is another story. Automattic recently closed its Series B round of funding for $29.5m. WordPress.com is their free blog hosting service with close to 2.5m blogs and growing. With [...]

April 4th, 2008
1:26 AM PT

[...] future, the vast majority of the funding raised in the quarter went to more familiar names, such as Automattic, Greenplum, SugarCRM, and [...]

April 7th, 2008
10:38 AM PT

[...] future of bbPress is bright with fresh funding coming in. Its not the greatest forum product out there, with the admin interface needing many [...]

April 20th, 2008
11:49 PM PT

[...] 3. Yahoo needs to invest in a company which is growing and what will be a better example other than WordPress which is one of the fastest growing community around the internet. Also WordPress is one company which will certainly do wonders in future and I’m sure everyone will agree to that. $ 29.5 Million as investment is certainly a proof of that. [...]

May 12th, 2008
11:00 PM PT

[...] la sua società è arrivata a raccogliere quasi 30 milioni di dollari da venture capitalist per andare avanti nel suo lavoro, Matt ha creato una tecnologia molto famosa [...]

May 17th, 2008
1:15 PM PT

[...] infact raised money about $1.1 million in angel funding. and $ 29.5 million in round B. and before that turns down a $200 million buy-out bid. founder Matt is talking [...]

May 20th, 2008
12:56 PM PT

[...] trends towards that. Lately, we’ve also seen investors throw money at blog ad networks, at blogging platforms and at blogging tool companies. The increasing use of blogging platforms as content management [...]

June 18th, 2008
7:20 PM PT

[...] לחברת Automattic מונה כ-19 עובדים, גייסה לא מזמן סכום של 29.5 מיליון דולר וסירבה להצעת רכישה בסך: 220$ מיליון. ישנם שני סוגים [...]

39 comments so far

January 22nd, 2008
8:31 PM PT

I’m so glad to see you back writing, Om, but I hope it is not too soon. I wish you good health forever, and I’m glad Matt raised the money. WordPress is truly a great product.

January 22nd, 2008
8:37 PM PT
Om Malik said:

Francine

thanks for your kind words. I am dabbling in work right now, depending on how I feel on a given day, and what the doctor says. This stop-start blogging is going to be the trend for another month or so before I regain my strength.

best

January 22nd, 2008
8:53 PM PT
Brian Solis said:

Om, your response to Francine is reassuring. Glad to know that your dabbling according to what your doctor says and how you feel ;)

Let me know if you need anything.

I’m a big fan of Matt’s…best of luck to him!

January 22nd, 2008
8:55 PM PT
Roebot said:

Excellent! GJ Matt.

January 22nd, 2008
9:14 PM PT
danny said:

congrats to matt and toni, they are a truly inspirational team.

January 22nd, 2008
9:25 PM PT
Isaac Garcia said:

Now THAT is what I call a Series B Round!!!! Congrats Matt! (fellow CNET Alumni)

January 22nd, 2008
10:10 PM PT
Ben Tremblay said:

Where’s the money gonna go? Dunno. But I bet WPMU is gonna get attention … including all that “WP as CMS” stuff. That’s non-trivial, and a 20% effort would have hellacious blow-back.

For the moment: a big shout to Matt and all hands!

–bentrem

January 22nd, 2008
10:10 PM PT
David said:

Congrats to that MONSTER B round. Much deserved for a great group of guys.

January 22nd, 2008
10:18 PM PT
David Evans said:

I just spent two hours chasing down a sneaky WP bug at one in the morning. I hope they hire some Movable Type engineers to clean up WP for the next version. /rant off.

January 22nd, 2008
11:01 PM PT
Jauhari said:

Just Perfect!

January 22nd, 2008
11:05 PM PT
Hostorials said:

Om… Good to see you dabbling with work again. Hope you recover soon.

And congrats to Matt. WordPress is without any doubt a great product which i have been using for varied set of my multiple websites/portals.

I was looking at BBPress and will be using for one of my portals. Your post above says some of this funding would go into improving BBPress, which is a great sign of encouragement.

Good luck

January 22nd, 2008
11:38 PM PT
Barney said:

The best part of this development is that there will undoubtedly be some adult supervision coming in. Matt has had a tendency to arbitrarily shut down blogs that get under his skin for one reason or another.

January 23rd, 2008
12:03 AM PT
Ivan Pope said:

“Still, Automattic’s investors are taking pains to keep the company’s founders motivated: Some of the $29 million will be used to help company founders and others cash out some of their holdings in the private company”

That’s a bit of a contradiction in terms isn’t it - buy their ownership out to keep them motivated?

January 23rd, 2008
12:34 AM PT

Om,

I am also very glad to see you blogging again, and I’m thrilled that WordPress has raised this capital. Hats off to Matt and everyone on the WP staff. Om, please take care of yourself and don’t push it too soon, as Francine mentioned above. We’ll all be here whenever you return. That’s what friends are for.:-)

Cathryn

January 23rd, 2008
2:38 AM PT
Alexander Ainslie said:

Om,

A rapid and reasonable way for WordPress to build in vertical and lateral social components on to the WP platform may be to buy into Marc’s Broadband Mechanics. Such a play could also serve as a “spread bet” in the whole “OPEN” aggregation space. WP would also get the benefit of the smart and vocal (this is an understatement!) Marc Canter in the process.

Alexander

January 23rd, 2008
3:25 AM PT
Aidan Henry said:

Chris Messina just launched a social networking initiative for WordPress called DiSo (Distributed Social networking). Check it out at (link) .

Cheers,
Aidan
(link)

January 23rd, 2008
4:10 AM PT
Parul Bindra said:

Well looks like with this huge amount of money and 2 million blogs, Automattic is well positioned to get into the online advertising business, if only for their network of blogs.One thing im not too sure about is the NYT becoming an investor in Automattic/WordPress.
NYT being one of the best media organisations and on the other hand an open-source project we all like!

So, what does WordPress do with all that bucks?

Parul Bindra
(link) – Web 2.0 Blog