Strikingly

Strikingly is a Chinese, "mobile-first" website builder and blogging platform. Its aim is to allow a user with little or no development experience^[3] to create mobile optimized websites and blogs.^[4] In addition to smartphones and tablets, websites created with Strikingly are "enhanced for viewing across all devices", including desktops.^{[5][6][verification needed]}

Strikingly

Type of business	Private
Area served	Worldwide
Founder(s)	David Chen[1][2] Dafeng Guo[1][2] Teng Bao[1][2]
Industry	Website builder, web hosting service, blogging
URL	www.strikingly.com

Strikingly is the first Chinese company to graduate from the Y Combinator seed accelerator.^[7]

History

Chief executive officer (CEO) David Haisha Chen, chief technology officer (CTO) Dafeng Guo, and chief design officer (CDO) Teng Bao founded the company in 2012.^[1][2]

Strikingly released its beta platform in August 2012.^[8] In June 2013, Strikingly was selected for Y Combinator’s winter startup program in Mountain View.^[3] In April 2013, Strikingly raised a total of $1.5M in seed round from 16 investors, including Ron Conway,^[1] founder of SV Angel, and other prominent venture capital firms including Y Combinator, Index Ventures, Funders Club, Infinite Venture Partners, ZenShin Capital, and Innovations Works.^[4] In August 2017, the 5 year old startup announced it had raised $6M in a Series A round of investment from CAS Holding, Infinity Venture Partners, Innovation Works, Kevin Hale and TEEC.^[9]

Product

Strikingly is a free online website builder and blogging platform.^[5][10] The website builder and blogging platform also includes built-in SEO features,^[8] social media plug-ins, page analytics, and form/email collecting functionalities.^[6] The product is aimed at both individuals and small businesses,^[11] and has mainly been used to showcase portfolios,^[7] digital resumes, events, startup projects, and to create personal branding websites.^[5] In early 2014, Strikingly also launched its one-click site builder with Facebook and LinkedIn, allowing users to build mobile optimized web pages quickly.^[11] The builder pulls information like profile pictures, location, contact information, and work experience from the social media page to create a mobile optimized website.^{[5][11][12] [13]}

Other competitors in the website building industry include Webflow,^[14] Wix.com,^[15] Weebly,^[16] Squarespace,^[17] Metaconex,^[18] WordPress,^[19]