Wix.com Ltd, developed by the company Wix, which is based in Israel, is essentially a cloud-based network advancement and improvement platform. The platform enables customers to create their own mobile or HTML5 websites using just drag and drop tools. Users can use the platform to add plug-ins, facilitate e-commerce, perform online marketing, create contact forms, engage in email marketing and even create forums for their websites. The company has functioned on a freemium model, with significant revenue coming from premium subscriptions taken by people.
The company grew tremendously since its inception and now has offices around the world, including ones in Canada, Germany, India, Lithuania, the US, and even Ukraine.
About the Founders
Avishai Abrahami served in the Israeli Defense Forces in the computer intelligence unit from 1990 up to 1992. After his stint with the military, in 1993, Abrahami co-founded a software company called ALT Ltd and worked as its Chief Technology Officer until they sold it in1997. Later in 1998, he co-founded a company that dealt with data centre management software development, called Sphera Corporation, and served as the Chief Technology Officer for two years. He then shifted to the position of Vice President of Marketing for the next three years. He then left the company to work as the Vice President of Strategic Alliances between 2004 to 2006. Abrahami served as the CEO of Wix.com and since 2006 was a Board Chairman from 2013 to 2016. Following his break, he was designated the Honorary Chairman and currently serving as a Board Member of SodaStream International Ltd.
Nadav Abrahami, who is Avishai’s brother, is the Vice President of R&D and is a programmer who had earlier worked at Oberon media.
Founding Wix
Avishai Abrahami, Nadav Abrahami, and Giora Kaplan founded Wix in 2006. Being Israelis themselves, they opened their first office in Tel Aviv with backing by venture capitalist investing firms such as Insight Venture Partners, Mangrove Capital Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Benchmark Capital. Their first product was launched in 2007, via an open beta mode on Adobe Flash.
Due to the high functionality, ease of use and a large number of options made available, the product grew and gained momentum, and by 2010, the company had amassed 3.5 million users. Following this, Benchmark Capital and Bessemer Venture along with Mangrove Capital pushed for a Series C funding which brought in an extra $10 million. The money led to further developments in the software and by 2011, Wix had almost doubled in volume, with over 8.5 million active users. This, in turn, led to another round of funding, which was able to raise $40 million, making the total funds raised $61 million.
Wix: A Win-Win
By June of 2011, Wix had launched a Facebook module and hence entered the social media world. They followed suit in 2012 with a new HTML5 site builder and did away with their old Adobe Flash platform. Wix also launched an app market to sell applications in 2012 and introduced a software development kit that enables people to create web pages with ease. All these new developments helped push the company’s growth, and by 2013, they had over 34 million active and registered users. Once they hit this mark, they opened their IPO on NASDAQ and raised over $127 million. In 2014, Wix acquired an Israeli start-up which was focusing on mobile commerce applications called Appixia. They followed up this with the acquisition of an online restaurant delivery system OpenRest.
This merger paved the way for Wix Hotels, which was launched in August 2014, which was a booking system for hotels and rooms. This hotel booking software also became a part of the Wix Restaurants service which was launched later in 2016. To further their reach in the social media marketing sector, Wix acquired Moment.me in 2015, which was a website builder that doubled as a social media lead generator. The company further expanded its horizons by releasing Wix Music in 2015 to help independent musicians sell their work. By the time, Wix had acquired DeviantArt in 2017, for over $36 million, the company had multiple investments in multiple fields.
Wix is also renowned for its marketing strategies, having created several well-known SuperBowl advertisements, by teaming up with DreamWorks Animation several times. The advertisements were so popular that they attracted over 300 million viewers both through online platforms and social media.
Wix was valued at over $4.5 billion and was the first Israeli company to be valued above $4 billion. The company’s share value closed at a record of $95.8 in 2018, with an ROI of 480% having opened at $16.5 in 2013. Considered to be one of the largest cloud-based platforms in the world with millions of users across the world, Wix is a success story that highlights passion and determination. Abrahami is a true soldier who has weathered multiple storms to get to the position he is in now, and it is his skill, experience, and dedication that got Wix to where it is now. With 42 million users in over 190 countries in the world, it is safe to say that Wix is at a great place right now.
Being a cinephile with a love for all things outdoorsy, Athulya never misses a chance to chase inspiring stories or poke fun at things, even when the subject is herself. Currently pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering, she is someone innately interested in technical and scientific research. Music reviews and op-eds define her as they allow her to explore different perspectives. Though sometimes she thinks she makes more sense playing the guitar than she does while writing.