French search engine Algolia raises $110 million Series C, led by Accel

Algolia, the rapidly-growing French company that developed a search-as-a-service platform, has announced a $110 million Series C round led by existing investor Accel, with new investor Salesforce Ventures coming on board.

Algolia has pioneered the Search-as-a-Service sector, offering a search engine technology that embeds seamlessly into a client’s chosen environment. Leading companies including Stripe, Slack, Intuit, Discovery Inc., Sephora, Lacoste, LVMH, and Birchbox use Algolia to deliver Google-like search experience within their branded websites. For Algolia clients, it’s all about the consumer’s experience.

Nick Maupin, product manager at Under Armour attested to the platform’s elegant service: “Delivering a fast, relevant experience to our online customers is a top priority. With Algolia, Under Armour has been able to move from a manual, time-intensive search tool to a fast, intuitive and insight-driven search experience to deliver what our customers are searching for.”

Currently over 8,000 companies use the platform, which runs 70 billion search queries per month. In addition to the search-as-a-service component, there are a suite of developer-friendly APIs as well as analytics, personalisation, and A/B testing capabilities.

Nicolas Dessaigne, co-founder and CEO, said: “For too long, organizations have had to choose between building resource-intensive search tools by themselves and using lower cost, but inflexible, set-it-and-forget-it search solutions. Algolia solves for both by removing the cost and complexity of building search while empowering businesses to create tailored experiences that engage and delight customers. Our rapid growth underscores both the market’s need to deliver amazing consumer experiences, and Algolia’s ability to help customers achieve these experiences.”

The massive investment will accelerate the company’s current expansion across the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. The funding will also support its research and development teams to continue evolving the search platform, focusing specifically on personalisation, machine learning, and voice search capabilities.