SimilarWeb Ltd., which is developing measuring and monitoring tools of websites around the world, is raising $3.5 million. Current investors - Yossi Vardi, Moshe Lichtman, the Recanati family's Naftali Investments Ltd., Van Leer Ventures Jerusalem Ltd. unit Docor International Management Ltd., and British businessman Lord Alliance - are participating in the round. The company has raised $7 million to date.
SimilarWeb was founded in 2009 by CEO Or Offer and CTO Nir Cohen, but changed direction two years ago from add-ons for downloading to its current activity - monitoring and analyzing user traffic on the Internet. The complex analysis behind the company's technology provides straightforward visual and very user-friendly answers. For example, it is possible to see from which countries a site's users come from, which sites refer users to a particular site and which sites the site refers users to, which search words lead users to the site, and which social networks result in referrals to the site.
SimilarWeb's entry into the online traffic monitoring business puts it head-to-head against veteran website in the field - Alexa, which has been considered for years as the oracle of online metrics, despite ceaseless criticism of the reliability of the data it provides. However, SimilarWeb not only claims that its product is more user-friendly and reliable, but that it also relies on a much wider panel of users.
SimilarWeb will use the proceeds from the funding, which it is now closing, to expand its global reach, says Offer. "We've opened an office in London, from which we want to expand our operations in Europe," he says. The company has expanded its workforce from 15 employees 18 months ago to 40 today, and is now hiring, especially Big Data experts who will help continue the analysis of more than 1.4 billion webpages a day.
SimilarWeb recently launched its premium tool, SimilarWeb Pro, which is not only the company's subscription-based economic model for companies, organizations, and individuals, but also offers a range of important traffic monitoring features.
"With this tool, you can see the marketing strategy of every company or site. For example, if you want to enter a new market or monitor you rivals' activity," says Offer. "It's like seeing all the poker players' cards in a game."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 24, 2013
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