A/B testing platform Optimizely raises $57M

Optimizely allows those with no technical knowledge to create test different versions of their sites

Just like anything else, I'd imagine that creating a website takes a lot of trial and error, as well as getting users to test it and say what they like and what they don't. The problem is that it takes a lot of technical know how to make multiple versions of a site.

Obviously companies like Facebook, Yahoo Google obviously have those kinds of resources, but what about small and medium sized businesses? That is where A/B testing platform Optimizely comes in. The company is dedicated to providing simple tools to allow even those with no technical knowledge to test out their sites.

Now the company has raised $57 million in new funding, it was revealed in a blog post on Monday. The Series B round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation by Benchmark Capital and Bain Capital Ventures.

This latest round brings Optimizely's total funding to $88 million. It has most recently raised a $28 million round in April of last year. The company's other investors include Battery Ventures, InterWest Partners, and Google Ventures.

The company will be using the new funding to roll out a series of products which it introduced at its Opticon customer conference last month, including: Optimizely for iOS, Optimizely.org (its plan for nonprofits), Optiverse (its new community platform), and its Developer Platform.

The money will also go toward building out the company's team. It currently employs 175 people, and plans to add another 75 by the end of the year. The company will be adding new people across the board, a company spokesperson told me, in departments that include product, sales, marketing and operations.

In addition to the new funding, it was also announced on Monday that Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Scott Weiss will be joining the board of directors at Optimizely.

Optimizely is a service that allows its customers to test out different versions of their websites, even if they have no technical expertise. They can test how eah site varies in terms of live traffic, and gather immediate results.

"Our vision is to enable the world to turn data into action. This vision emerged from the reason we started the company: we started Optimizely to build the product I wish we had on the Obama 2008 campaign to make it easy for anyone to do A/B testing," Dan Siroker, the co-founder and CEO of Optimizely, wrote in the blog post. (Note: Siroker  was the director of analytics for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008)

Founded in 2010, Optimizely has already become one of the leading companies in the space. It has seen triple digit year to year growth, becoming cash flow positive after only two years.

The platform has over 7,000 customers in 101 countries, who have creared over half a million experiences and optimized over 7 billion web experiences.

In a separate blogpost, Weiss explained why the firm invested in Optimizely: namely, so that every company could have the same resources as a Google or Yahoo to make their website and product the best it can be.

"The founders have taken a core Google competency and are making it their life’s work to extend it to the rest of the world, big or small," Weiss wrote.

"The company converted a complex process that requires engineering resources into a simple tool that almost anyone can use, which dramatically broadens adoption."