Headless CMS platform Kontent secures new capital to grow its customer base – Nob6

Kontent, a platform designed to assist corporations handle business-related content material within the cloud, at this time introduced that it raised $40 million from Expedition Development Capital as a part of a progress capital infusion. Newly appointed CEO Bart Omlo says that the proceeds from Kontent’s first exterior funding will probably be put towards increasing the corporate’s advertising and marketing and gross sales groups, opening a brand new workplace in New York and supporting product improvement.

Kontent launched in 2015 as an inside startup of 18-year-old bootstrapped software program developer Kentico. Kentico was the brainchild of Petr Palas, who noticed a possibility to construct a content material administration system (CMS) for builders utilizing Microsoft’s .NET framework.

“Many corporations and digital businesses [have historically] constructed their techniques in-house, and Petr wished to offer them with a versatile answer they may purchase at an reasonably priced worth,” Omlo instructed Nob6 in an e mail interview. “Petr bootstrapped the corporate and Kentico’s CMS gained robust traction available in the market, shortly turning into probably the most widespread .NET CMSes. Over time, the product developed right into a complete digital expertise platform for entrepreneurs.”

In 2015, Kentico began to discover the rising development of “headless CMSes,” attempting to rethink among the core ideas of content material administration and promote it as a software-as-a-service answer. A headless CMS is a back-end solely content material administration system for apps and web sites that acts primarily as a repository. Kentico’s inaugural headless CMS product was launched underneath the model “Kontent” and ultimately grew to energy over 2,000 web sites, apps, and e-commerce experiences throughout clients, together with the College of Oxford and Anaplan.

“Lately, companies of all sizes have been more and more shifting to a headless content material structure to enhance the pace and agility of their digital experiences. This has led to hyper-growth within the headless CMS class,” Oliver Thomas, a co-founder and accomplice at Expedition, instructed Nob6 through e mail. “Kontent.ai has been a primary mover and innovator within the house.”

Kontent’s platform permits customers to create and evaluation content material like textual content, photos and objects throughout the confines of prebuilt workflows. On the developer facet, clients can combine Kontent with different apps and applied sciences by way of APIs and “versatile content material fashions,” enabling management over the construction of content material and the way it’s delivered to web sites and apps.

Angling to face aside from the opposite headless CMS platforms on the market, Kontent presents a “Advice API” that makes use of AI to research “recommendable” objects and present them to particular customers of apps and web sites or segments of customers. One other function, Net Highlight, gives companies a “page-centric” view of content material for making adjustments to repeat and attempting layouts, whereas Collections lets clients share and reuse content material throughout groups and management entry to specialised (e.g., region- or product-specific) content material.

“The standard CMS business has reached its largest inflection level. The incumbent options had been designed for on-premise, monolithic structure. Since then, the shoppers have moved to the cloud,” Omlo continued. “We see plenty of urge for food available in the market in direction of utilizing fashionable API-first options … It resonates with CIOs and enterprise architects who wish to transfer away from conventional all-in-one monolithic options, resembling Adobe or Sitecore, to a extra versatile know-how stack of rigorously chosen options that match the wants of the group.

Kontent competes in opposition to Contentful, Contentstack, Strapi and Storyblok in a headless CMS software program market that could possibly be price $1.6 billion by 2027, according to an estimate by Analysis and Markets. Whereas Omlo wouldn’t share income metrics — or any progress metrics in any respect, for that matter — he argued that Kontent’s “bootstrapped and capital-efficient” historical past offers it a bonus heading right into a difficult financial local weather.

“CMS options are a part of corporations’ vital digital infrastructure with a lifecycle of 5–10 years. The pandemic didn’t characterize a serious change up or down within the enterprise, but it surely accelerated the digital transformation in enterprises that at the moment are asking for a cloud-native, composable strategy,” Omlo stated. “Primarily based on our earlier expertise from the monetary disaster in 2007–2009, an financial slowdown pushes corporations to rethink their digital technique which is usually related with rebuilding their web site. This represents a possible switching alternative to fashionable CMS options.”

Kontent says that it plans to rent 100 staff throughout the subsequent 12 months, increasing its present headcount of 120 individuals throughout 5 places of work. (Kontico relies within the Czech Republic.)