Squarespace

Not to be confused with Square, Inc..

Squarespace, Inc.
Headquarters in Manhattan
Type of businessPrivate
Type of site
SaaS-based hosting platform
Traded asNYSE: SQSP
Headquarters225 Varick Street
New York City, New York,
United States
Area servedWorldwide
OwnerPermira
FounderAnthony Casalena
CEOAnthony Casalena
IndustryInternet
ProductsWebsite builder and hosting service
RevenueIncrease US$1.01 billion (2023)[1]
Employees1,749 (2023)[1]
URLOfficial website Edit this at Wikidata
RegistrationRequired; subscription needed for certain features.
LaunchedJanuary 2004 (2004-01)

Squarespace, Inc. is a global website building and hosting company based in New York City.[2] It provides software as a service for website building, e-commerce, domain registration, marketing, and online scheduling. The platform allows users to use pre-built website templates, drag-and-drop editing, and artificial intelligence-powered design tools[3].

In 2003, Anthony Casalena founded Squarespace as a blog hosting service while attending the University of Maryland, College Park. He was its only employee until 2006 when it reached $1 million in revenue. The company grew from 30 employees in 2010 to 550 by 2015. By 2014, it raised a total of $78.5 million in venture capital; added e-commerce tools, domain name services, and analytics; and replaced its coding backend with drag-and-drop features. It began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on May 19, 2021,[4] and was taken private by Permira in October 2024. According to W3Techs, Squarespace is used by 2.5% websites worldwide.[5]

History

Casalena began developing Squarespace for his personal use while attending the University of Maryland.[6][7] He started sharing it with friends and family members[6] and participated in a "business incubator" program at the university.[7] In January 2004, he launched Squarespace as do it yourself website builder for the public,[7][8] with a $30,000 seed fund from his father,[9] a small grant from the university,[10] and 300 beta testers who paid a discounted rate.[7][11][12][13] At that time, Casalena was the company's sole developer and employee, and worked out of his dorm room.[7][12]

In 2006, Casalena hired two full-time W2 employees, a principal designer and a customer support representative. By the time Casalena graduated in 2005[14], Squarespace was making annual revenues of $1 million. [8] He moved to New York City, continued hiring, and had 30 employees by 2010.[8][13] That year, Squarespace received $38.5 million in its first round of venture capital funding led by Index Ventures and Accel Partners,[15] enabling it to hire more staff, continue to develop its software,[16] and double its marketing budget.[6] From 2009 to 2012, it grew an average of 266% in yearly revenue.[17] In April 2014, it received another $40 million in funding.[18][19] By 2015, it had reached $100 million in revenue and 550 employees.[8]

Squarespace purchased Super Bowl advertising spots from 2014[20][6] to 2026[21]. Its 2017 ad won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Commercial.[22] In 2017, it signed a sponsorship deal with the New York Knicks to add the Squarespace logo to their uniforms.[23]

Squarespace acquired appointment scheduling company Acuity Scheduling in April 2019.[24] In October 2019, Squarespace acquired Unfold, an app co-founded by Alfonso Cobo that allows users to editorialize their social media content.[25] In April 2021, the company bought hospitality industry management platform Tock for more than $400 million.[26] It sold Tock to American Express in June 2024.[27] 

In early 2021, the company filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to go public through direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "SQSP".[28][29][30] In March 2021, Squarespace raised $300 million in a round of funding led by Dragoneer, Tiger Global, D1 Capital Partners and Fidelity Management & Research Company with participation from existing investors. This funding round valued the company at $10 billion.[31]

On June 15, 2023, Squarespace concluded an agreement to purchase the Google Domains business, including approximately 10 million registered domain names.[32][33]

In May 2024, Squarespace signed a deal with British private equity firm Permira to be taken private.[34] The transaction was finalized in October 2024.[35]

Corporate affairs

Leadership

Squarespace is managed by CEO and Founder Anthony Casalena. Other key executives are:[36]

  • Courtenay O'Connor, General Counsel
  • David Lee, Chief Brand and Creative Officer
  • John Colton, Chief Technology Officer
  • Nathan Gooden, Chief Financial Officer
  • Angela Crossman, Chief People Officer
  • Paul Gubbay, Chief Product Officer
  • Raphael Fontes, Senior Vice President, Customer Operations
  • Roberta Meo, Vice President, Channels and Services
  • Dan Chandre, Vice President, Head of Acuity Scheduling & Squarespace Payments
  • Kevin Doerr, SVP, Head of Domains & Applications
  • Josh Groth, SVP, Growth

Product / business model

Squarespace operates a subscription-based SaaS model. As of November 2022, Squarespace had more than four million subscriptions.[30] Its users employ pre-built website templates, and a variety of drag and drop widgets to add elements such as text and images.[16] Its developers also create custom templates that are sold to users.[16] On-screen instructions walk users through things like search engine optimization and setting up e-commerce.[8]

Squarespace was initially built for creating and hosting blogs.[11] E-commerce features, such as integration with Stripe for accepting credit card payments, was added in 2013.[37] Additional commerce features were added in 2014 and beyond, including payments integration and analytics[38]. In 2023, Squarespace introduced a native payment solution to expand its commerce infrastructure.[39]

In 2011, Squarespace was upgraded to version 6, with new templates, a grid-based user interface, and other enhancements.[16] Version 7, which went live in 2014, replaced its coding backend with a drag and drop interface,[40][41] and added integration with Google Workspace (formerly G Suite and Google Apps for Work) and Getty Images.[19]

In 2016, Squarespace started selling domains. In 2023, it acquired the Google Domains business, adding approximately 10 million domains under management.[33] The acquisition significantly expanded its presence as a domain registrar, and is now one of the largest domain providers worldwide according to Domain Name Stat.[42]

Starting in 2024, Squarespace introduced AI-driven features for automating website layout generation, AI-generated copy suggestions, SEO recommendations and content optimization.[43][44]

References

  1. ^ a b "Squarespace 2023 Annual Report (Form 10-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. February 28, 2024.
  2. ^ "Squarespace Offices / A+I". ArchDaily. July 31, 2018. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  3. ^ Roach, Jacob. "I Let Squarespace's AI Builder Design a Website for Me. Here's What It's Like". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved April 24, 2026.
  4. ^ Giles, Margaret (May 19, 2021). "What to Know as Squarespace Goes Public". Morningstar.com. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  5. ^ "Usage statistics and market share of Squarespace". w3techs.com. Retrieved March 11, 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d Cole, Samantha (May 21, 2014). "How Squarespace's CEO Pivoted to Scale for Millions". Fast Company. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  7. ^ a b c d e "About Us - Squarespace".
  8. ^ a b c d e Clifford, Catherine (April 22, 2016). "How Squarespace Went From a Dorm-Room Project to a $10 Million Web Publishing Platform". Entrepreneur. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  9. ^ "UMD Alumnus Company Squarespace to Run Inaugural Big Game Ad". UMD Right Now :: University of Maryland. February 1, 2014. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  10. ^ Patterson, Dan (June 30, 2016). "How Squarespace became a multimillion dollar publishing giant". TechRepublic. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  11. ^ a b "How Squarespace became a multimillion-dollar publishing giant". TechRepublic. June 30, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  12. ^ a b Caumont, Andrea (September 13, 2004). "Squarespace Lets Users Manage Multi-Page Web Sites". The Washington Post.
  13. ^ a b Rusli, Evelyn (July 13, 2010). "Squarespace Raises $38.5 Million From Accel, Index Ventures". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  14. ^ "Alumni Hall Of Fame | UMD Department of Computer Science". www.cs.umd.edu. Retrieved April 24, 2026.
  15. ^ "Squarespace Raises $38.5 Million From Accel, Index Ventures". TechCrunch. July 14, 2010. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  16. ^ a b c d "Squarespace 6: Rebuilt From The Ground Up To Take On WordPress, Tumblr And Everyone Else". TechCrunch. October 21, 2011. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  17. ^ "Fast 50". Crain’s New York Business. October 7, 2013.
  18. ^ Zipkin, Nina (February 15, 2018). "The Founder of Squarespace Explains Why You Don't Want to Raise As Much Money as Possible". Entrepreneur. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  19. ^ a b Warren, Christina (October 7, 2014). "Squarespace Ramps up its Tools to Compete with Wordpress". Mashable.
  20. ^ "UMD Alumnus Company Squarespace to Run Inaugural Big Game Ad". research.umd.edu. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  21. ^ Nudd, Tim (February 4, 2026). "Inside Squarespace's darkly comic gem of a Super Bowl ad with Emma Stone". AdA ge.
  22. ^ "Squarespace's Super Bowl Ad With John Malkovich Wins the Emmy for Best Commercial". AdWeek. September 11, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
  23. ^ Soshnick, Scott (October 10, 2017). "Knicks Team Up With Squarespace for Patch Sponsorship Deal". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved February 13, 2018.
  24. ^ Ha, Anthony (April 23, 2019). "Squarespace makes its first acquisition with Acuity Scheduling". TechCrunch.
  25. ^ Ha, Anthony (October 22, 2019). "Squarespace acquires social media authoring startup Unfold". TechCrunch.
  26. ^ Roof, Katie (April 1, 2021). "Squarespace Buys Tech Startup Tock for $400 Million Plus". Washington Post.
  27. ^ Sawers, Paul (June 21, 2024). "Squarespace sells restaurant reservation system Tock to American Express for $400M". TechCrunch. Retrieved April 24, 2026.
  28. ^ "Squarespace confidentially files for stock market listing". Reuters. January 27, 2021. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  29. ^ "Website-building company Squarespace confidentially files to go public". Business Insider. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  30. ^ a b Novet, Jordan (April 16, 2021). "Website maker Squarespace files to go public on NYSE through direct listing". CNBC.
  31. ^ Azevedo, Mary Ann (March 16, 2021). "Squarespace raises $300M at a staggering $10B valuation". TechCrunch.
  32. ^ Li, Abner (June 15, 2023). "Google Domains shutting down, assets sold and being migrated to Squarespace". 9to5Google. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
  33. ^ a b "Squarespace Enters Definitive Agreement to Acquire Google Domains Assets" (Press release). PR Newswire. June 15, 2023. Archived from the original on June 15, 2023. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
  34. ^ "Software company Squarespace being taken private by Permira in $6.9 billion deal". Associated Press. May 13, 2024.
  35. ^ Sawers, Paul (October 17, 2024). "Permira completes Squarespace acquisition after upping bid to $7.2B". TechCrunch.
  36. ^ "Our Team". Squarespace. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  37. ^ Summers, Nick (February 14, 2013). "Squarespace Adds Commerce Tools To Its Website Builder". The Next Web. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  38. ^ Novet, Jordan (April 16, 2014). "Don't forget about website runner Squarespace. It just raised $40M". VentureBeat. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  39. ^ PYMNTS (October 4, 2023). "Squarespace Adds Payments to Serve the Needs of 'Long Tail' eCommerce Sellers". PYMNTS.com. Retrieved April 27, 2026.
  40. ^ Nudd, Tim (October 20, 2014). "Squarespace's Radical Update Is Like a Blank Canvas. So Its New Ads Are, Too". Adweek.
  41. ^ Rhodes, Margaret (October 7, 2014). "The New Squarespace is a UX Dream that Eliminates the Backend Entirely". Wired.
  42. ^ "Domain Name Registrars List - Domain Name Stat". domainnamestat.com. Retrieved April 27, 2026.
  43. ^ Inc, Squarespace. "Squarespace Refresh 2024: Introducing a New Era for Entrepreneurs". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved April 27, 2026. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  44. ^ Ha, Anthony (October 6, 2024). "Website builder Squarespace says it's training its AI tools with curation and taste". TechCrunch. Retrieved April 27, 2026.
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