Spreadsheet Maker Airtable Taps Funds at $2.5 Billion Value

Spreadsheet Startup Airtable Taps Funding at $2.5 Billion Value

Katie Roof

15 Sep 2020, 03:30 PM IST

(Bloomberg) -- Spreadsheet startup Airtable has closed a round of funding that values the company at $2.5 billion.

The $185 million new investment was led by Thrive Capital. Existing investors, including Benchmark and Coatue Management, also participated. The round more than doubles the $1.1 billion valuation Airtable had in 2018. Airtable has raised more than $350 million to date, said a company spokesperson.

Airtable, which is formally known as Formagrid Inc., competes with Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. It doesn’t have the number-crunching functionality of Excel, but instead aims to offer a more user-friendly design suitable for consumers or businesses.

The startup says it now has over 200,000 business customers, including Netflix Inc., Robinhood Markets Inc. and HBO. It plans to use the funding to add new features, making it easier for developers to customize Airtable.

The company plans to make it easier for people without a technical background to build productivity tools.

“You can build 99% of your application without writing code,” said Max Gazor, a board member at Airtable and general partner at venture capital firm CRV.

Airtable’s business has benefited as more people work from home, said Howie Liu, co-founder and chief executive officer. He referred to his business as part of a second wave, saying that companies are moving beyond communication tools like Slack Technologies Inc. and Zoom Video Communications Inc. and are now adding more productivity software.

The business is expanding, but don’t expect Airtable to be acquired anytime soon. “We’ve been absolutely uninterested in acquisitions,” Liu said, adding that there’s “easily a $100 billion opportunity ahead of us.”

Investors say Airtable could eventually go public. Peter Fenton, general partner at Benchmark, said he expects it to be “one of the enduring and special long-term iconic companies.”

Fenton said that he’s optimistic that Airtable will remain competitive because it’s growing quickly and has a loyal customer base. “The retention metrics were the best I had ever seen,” he said.