There have been simple, browser-based website creation tools available on the market ever since the WWW turned mainstream, but there’s clearly still a significant demand for this type of services, especially with the way the web is evolving.
SynthaSite is one of the players in the DIY website / blog builder field, and they’ve just gotten a huge vote of confidence from their investors: the company has announced a $20 million Series B round from Luxembourg-based Reinet Fund and plans to use the money to grow both organically and through selected acquisitions (they made a first small one past December when they bought Clickpass).
This is actually the same investor as the $5 million Series A round it raised in November 2007, but then then-called Columbus Venture Capital was recently restructured into Reinet, which is now a listed entity on the Luxembourg & Johannesburg Stock Exchange with over $2 billion in market cap.
No word on the startup’s valuation, although co-founder and CEO Vinny Lingham (also an occasional blogger) tells me it was definitely not a down-round and that they’re in it for the long run. He also added that the company is growing nicely, boasting 1 million registered users and graphs clearly showing an upwards traffic trend (Quantcast). Compete shows a similar curve.
SynthaSite makes building simple websites a breeze, but in that it doesn’t differ much from the dozens of similar services out there (e.g. the just launched DevHub, WebJam, Sampa, Jimdo, Weebly, webme and many many more) apart from the fact that they integrated a bunch of third-party services into the application (e.g. WidgetBox for widget distribution, Picnik for photo editing, etc.). SynthaSite is also up against services from established companies, like Microsoft Office Live and Google Sites. It remains to be seen if the now heavily-funded startup will be able to keep growing at the current rate in this economic climate and with an increasingly competitive playing field.
As for the business model: SynthaSite generates revenue from domain names sales only (as an affiliate to Network Solutions) as the service is entirely ad-free. Premium services (like advanced features, unique templates, etc.) are coming later this year, says Lingham.
Strategy-wise, SynthaSite is looking for partnerships with ISPs and large computer manufacturers and internet companies, who could offer a co-branded solution to their users without paying SynthaSite for the service but rather getting a chunk of the revenues back from the company.
It’s a good strategy, but many have tried – and are trying – to do the same, so again, the jury is still out if SynthaSite will be able to justify the faith their investor obviously puts in them in the years to come.
Congrats Vinny! I think you guys have a solid business model. There is a lot of competition out there, but most are dumbed down and not as flexible as Synthasite.
Best,
Jeremy
Someone tells me why should I use this website and not, say, joomla or drupal? How is it different?
You don’t have to install anything, and it actually looks qute good.
Also, early on they offered free stock to early users! I supposed those who were lucky enough to get in did quite well for no work!
Anjali Sen
They revoked that offer.
Great, now I don’t feel so sad for not taking them up on the offer!
Anjali Sen
Only way to discover that is to try it out for yourself, Jonas.
Synthasite has come a long way since I first created an account on their beta service.
It’s aimed at non-technical people who want to do it themselves. However, it could also be used by more advanced users who use synthasite to build sites and then deploy them elsewhere, since synthasite allows one to download your entire site in zip format.
Congrats to Vinny and his team on the second round of funding.
Good stuff. Maybe I can get some funding for my site builder: http://www.expe...com/sitebuilder
How could you not mention weebly in that list of competitors?
http://siteanal....com/?metric=uv
There are many more, but Weebly does deserve a mention for sure (I used them once for a website). Thanks, post updated.
hopefully they will change their name and logo to something more legible.
Good site. I had been using webnode till now and it wasn’t so easy to work with. I faced many problems with templates in webnode. SynthaSite looks much cleaner and easy to work with
Congratulations to Vinny and the excellent team at SynthaSite for making this happen!
In the field of simple DIY website building, fluid user experience and powerful, fast functionality are the keys to success. I think that SynthaSite is the leader in this regard. Their growing integration of 3rd party platforms leaves me wondering what services Vinny isn’t thinking about incorporating into the system.
Well done again on all the success guys, I hope that you put a lot of overpriced, second-rate Web contractors out of business.
@jonas Have you used Joomla! or Drupal? They’re significantly more technical and difficult to use ‘out of the box’. (My litmust test is: “Could my mom use it?” Answer: nope).
I honestly had no idea where you were going with this. I was just proud to see some South African blood in the valley.
Whilst I’m still very proud, I am now more driven than ever to start a programme to kick more tech brains into gear.. from middle school upwards..
YOU ROCK DUDE !!
Congrats Vinny. Kudos.
I like Synthasite because they are responsive, and let me paste in any old javascript widget code I want from any service. Other web-based site builders put a kibosh on some code.
Congrats Vinny and team!
Webbly is definitely one of my favorites.
http://tr.im/gk8j
That’s cool. I might have to try them out myself now that it sounds like they’ll be around a bit.
Hey Vinny,
WOW! Big CONGRATS!
To get $20 mil in this economy means you must have something really HOT!
-Amit
WOW, Vinny… I’m speechless!
I’ve always seen the vision and potential in regards to Monetizing Synthasite in a free market. As mentioned before, you seem to be one step ahead.
How you have been able to pull a $20 mil Series B round funding off, taking the global economical slowdown into consideration, I personally think is absolutely amazing.
With that said, I also personally believe the recession plays to Synthasite’s advantage in terms of a user friendly, cheaper and faster Ajax based website creation software which is accessible from pretty much anywhere.
Companies that can not only shelter, but shine in a time of recession are the one’s that’s in it for the long run and Synthasite is on my list as one of the definite favorites!
Vinny, this investment and the confidence investors have shown in you is just an example of your drive and passion for online technology and business sector as a whole.
With you leading from the front, I believe there’s only great things to come for Synthasite.
I wish you guys all the hard earned success and a great 2009 lying ahead!
Bet Tubs is a proud as hell..
The problem with these DIY sites is that they inevitably hurt companies that use them to build their business websites. A good designer brings a lot more to the table then his technical skills.
Of course, large companies will not use this, but millions of small businesses, consultants, lawyers, doctors, dentists and other professionals will
Who said large companies? It’s all the small companies that will suffer by using a free service like this.
This would be a good service for your mom or anybody that isn’t interested in making money.
I totally disagree that design should be delegated to an elite designer over-class. I would rather have homely, functional, honest sites that link to good content and provide good, valuable information, than fancy shmancy sites shepherded by designers that charge the small business owner 300 bux for every small revision.
Let’s hear it for ugly DIY sites with rich links.!
Congrats Vinny
How about Homestead http://www.homestead.com
They have been around for 10 years.
I think we have an answer on the Homestea.com front page: “Only $4.99/month after 30-day free trial”
I tried Homestead years ago. At the time, it was not only difficult to use for the newbie I was, but there were so many pop-up ads it was rendered effectively unusable. Synthasite is simply the best simple online website-builder around for those who can’t code or, like myself, are too lazy to. I recommend it to my friends all the time, even those who aren’t particularly bright.
Are the URLs it spits out search engine friendly? Are the navigation structures search engine friendly (i.e. CSS-based navigation fly-outs)? Are users able to optimize title tags, H tags, meta tags, etc? If not, seriously consider adding this level of customization. It’s CRUCIAL to ranking well in the search engine indicies.
Hi Eric,
The urls are search engine friendly and you are able to optimize your meta tags. You also can submit your website to Google Webmaster via Synthasite.
I was able to get a site indexed in Google within a week.
Yeah, congrats Vinny! 1 mil users is a great start. Proud to see SA representing in Silicon Valley…
Congratulations to Synthasite on their raise, they are quite good.
A good designer definitely brings more than his technical skills to the table (Thanks ImageCo).
We believe that good design and good websites do cost a little money. They do not have to be expensive however. With today’s tools and available skill sets, a unique design (not a template) and custom site on the WordPress platform can be had for $2000.
Check out http://www.2000...llarwebsite.com to see.
@Beau Lou Your kidding me right? That site sucks – you advertise no templates – and if that isnt a template then your design skills need major work. Im not trying to be rude, but there is no way id pay 2k for that heap or anything like it.
WOW – annndd you have yourself as a portfolio piece. WTF? Kudos – for sure.
You know I am in the market for a new design just now so I went to check out the 2k site mentioned.
What a heap of pants! I too do not wish to be rude but I tell you what, if I was asked to pay $200 for that I might change my mind about the wanting to be rude.
2k is just a joke!
Vinny- congrats, this is a big vote of confidence. You’re rocking w/ it.
In addition to the mentioned site, there are a number of special-purpose turn-key site creators:
http://www.ning.com – Social Networks
http://www.shopify.com – E-Commerce
http://www.fullseat.com – Event
I’m sure there are more
…but none of them have just raised $20m! Come on guys, the article is about Synthasite’s success today, not a reference list of every other website builder available.
Does raising 20 mil mean they are any good — at anything other than raising 20 mil ?
Granted that alone is a neat trick but it does not mean they offer a good service…
in my opinion, snappages is a better alternative and therefore should be mentioned here too,
check it out
http://snappages.com/
Great job Synthasite team to pull it off in this economic climate. It is a great site building tool.
Now this make me question our decision to offer online site , store builder software to end users instead of your way of offering the service to end users.
wanna be just like Vinny when I grow up
http://www.shaw....com/theceo.php
I wanna be just like Vinny when I grow up
Awesome!
Congratulations to the great hardworking Synthasite team!
You deserve it!!!
Shot Vinny! One for the homegrown geeks here in Cape Town
I’m surprised nobody mentioned http://squarespace.com – they’ve got one of the nicer site builders out there.
Yesterday, SynthaSite sent out an email to their users written by Vinny announcing the funding. One problem, there was no opt-out button! Hello CAN-SPAM.
Hi all at SynthaSite!
I came a long way thanks to your product ,
Having worked always in the telecomm business and
now building up a website and communicating with the
world is something else …very rewarding
Wish you all the luck !
Kind Regards
Ernst Weinert
Cape Town
http://www.sout...geographic.com/
Congratulations to Vinny and the Synthasite team! I still remember the good old days when we were working from the same office, and now you guys have definitely gone a long way! Very well done!
Congrats Vinny and team. You all guys genious!
Hi Vinny & team,
Congratulations! Any news on how you’ll be different from all your competitors?
Cheers,
Carel.
great news for the funding..i am sure u guys will use it for more top end tech apps like video apps in websites..i am keen on that froint .do keep me posted.
Congratulations to Vinny!
Mr Lingham is the recipient of numerous awards, including Top Young ICT Entrepreneur in Africa (2006) & was also a finalist for Men’s Health Best Man (2009) & ICT Personality of the Year in South Africa (2008). Congratulations!
VC funding is easy to get these days. Spending VC money is even easier… but once everything is spent… companies usually go out of business. Yes, this is more and more often.
So guys, wait with congragulations until they prove they are real self-sustaining business and not just another black hole.
Sampa hit the deadpool I believe…
http://www.crun...m/company/sampa
it is an extremely crowded space, I agree with Future, wait until they prove themselves.