In a nutshell
- Czech Apify, a web data extraction platform, has secured €2.8M.
- The new investment is backed by J&T Ventures, with participation from existing investor Reflex Capital led by Ondřej Fryc.
- The new fund will be utilized in marketing activities, product development, and further fostering the growth of the developer community.
Their background story
The Prague-based startup, founded in 2015 by Jan Čurn and Jakub Balada, provides a web scraping platform, allowing companies to gather data from websites. It aims to automate any web-based workflow, and then execute it at scale in the cloud.
The two founders met while studying computer science at the UK Faculty of Mathematics and Physics. Identifying a demand for software extracting specific data from web pages, they created a platform offering such tools. One of the company’s key services is an open marketplace with so-called Actors, cloud-based programs that could be run, shared, integrated and built upon.
Apify clients include Siemens, Intercom, Microsoft, T-Mobile, and Accenture. The company witnessed an 80% growth in revenue for the last quarter of 2023 compared to the year prior.
In their own words
“Our last investment was secured in 2019, and Apify has been growing solely from its own profits in recent years. However, we now see an opportunity in the market to accelerate growth, which is why we have decided to seek further investment. Given our size, we opted for a relatively modest amount, as we didn’t want to disrupt the company with a massive influx of capital. This allows us to maintain our financial efficiency and unique company culture while keeping our options open for future investments or exits. Our current goal is to demonstrate our ability to convert capital into economically efficient growth, attract new customers, and scale our business. Once we achieve this, it may make sense for us to seek a large investment from global VC funds and attempt to become the next Czech unicorn,” said Jan Čurn, co-founder and CEO of Apify.
Investors’ perspective
“We have been following the journey of Apify with enthusiasm since 2016 when we first met Honza and Jakub. In that time, they have built cutting-edge technology, a strong brand and an international network of customers. As a result, they are now in a great position to take advantage of the huge opportunities that are opening up. We believe we can help them grow into a global leader,” shared Martin Kešner from J&T Ventures.
“We have been supporting Apify for eight years, and we have been sure of its potential every step of the way,“ says Ondřej Fryc from Reflex Capital. „Honza and Jakub have already built a global business with MRR (monthly recurring revenue) in the high hundreds of thousands of dollars that are now rocketing. We see the investment as an opportunity to further support this growth,” he adds.
