San Francisco company Airtable makes it easy to plan events, projects, and product development by helping teams keep track of timelines and workflows. Founded in 2012, the cloud-based software provider blends the traditional spreadsheet with a database, creating an innovative productivity tool that anyone can use. Today, more than 200,000 organizations use Airtable, including Netflix, IBM, HBO, and Conde Nast.
Now the company has announced that it landed $185 million in a Series D funding round, bringing Airtable's valuation to $2.5 billion. Thrive Capital led the round, with participation from existing investors Benchmark, Coatue, Caffeinated Capital and CRV. D1 Capital also participated in the round as a new investor.
The new injection of capital will be used in Airtable’s global expansion and enterprise efforts. Over the last few years, the company has focused its efforts on its software development kit (SDK), which sets the stage for an open ecosystem model. In the future, Airtable intends to allow any developer to build, distribute, and even sell applications within the platform.
Including this latest investment, Airtable has raised $350 million since its 2013 launch. It last raised money with a $100 million Series C Round in November 2018, which gave it a valuation of about $1.1 billion.
"We didn't need the money," said Howie Liu, Airtable Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. "Once Covid hit, we wanted to seize the opportunity and not have to worry about what the economy is going to look like if there's a second wave. We are building for the long term without being distracted by broader market fluctuations."
This comes as Airtable revealed the launch of new product features, including Airtable Apps. This is a low-code feature based in JavaScript Marketplace, which is a place to share items that users and others develop. The company also launched Automations, which allows users to easily automate certain workflows, and Airtable Sync, which enables teams to easily share specific dates.
Airtable is part of a new generation of no-code companies that enable users to build and customize software, even if they don’t know how to code. Cloud-based and collaborative, Airtable allows users to store and sort data, images, documents, and videos in an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. Unlike Google Sheets, it has the computing ability to run companies with thousands of employees.
