Contentstack Secures $80M Funding to Expand Its Headless CMS Platform in Enterprise Market

Rapid growth in the digital content management space has led Contentstack to secure $80 million in a Series C funding round for its headless content management system (CMS) platform catering to enterprise customers. Co-led by Georgian and Insight Partners, with participation from Illuminate Ventures, this latest funding takes the company's total funds raised to $169 million.

The enterprise content management systems market is projected to reach a valuation of $53.2 billion by 2030, skyrocketing up from $21.5 billion in 2020, according to Allied Market Research. This surge in demand is driven by the increasing need for organizing and managing various forms of digital content, including documents and images.

Headless CMSs, a relatively recent innovation, are gaining traction in the market and drawing interest from investors. These systems primarily function as content repositories, managing backend infrastructure while providing extensive customization options for frontend users. Similar to widgets or plug-ins on a website, a headless CMS is usually paired with a separate presentation layer handling design, structure, templates, and other related elements.

Contentstack, as one of the several vendors offering a headless CMS solution for enterprise customers, aims to deploy the fresh capital for customer acquisition, geographic expansion, product development, and strategic partnerships, said CEO Neha Sampat in an interview with TechCrunch.

She emphasized that Contentstack's automated headless CMS technology allows marketers and developers to deliver composable digital experiences at the speed of their imagination. This ensures that enterprises can innovate quickly, deploy new features rapidly, and remain agile in the face of digital disruption, without getting entangled in monolithic systems that don't scale with the business or the world.

Established in 2018, Contentstack evolved from consulting firm Raw Engineering and app development platform Built.io, both linked to Sampat's professional journey. She co-founded Built.io with former Software AG VP of Engineering Nishant Patel, who later joined her in launching Contentstack.

The company competes with other headless CMS vendors such as Storyblok and Prismic, which recently raised $47 million and $20 million respectively in funding. Strapi and Kontent are also notable competitors in this space, but Sampat affirms that Contentstack is the sole CMS offering automation capabilities that don't necessitate code.

Apart from allowing users to review, approve, and publish content across their organizations, Contentstack's workflows also feature a marketplace that serves as a hub for extensions, apps, and integrations crafted by customers, partners, and the company's engineering team.

Despite many organizations struggling to use CMS optimally irrespective of the vendor, according to the Content Marketing Institute's 2021 survey, Contentstack has managed to woo enterprise clients such as Shell, JPMorgan Chase, HP, McDonald's, Mattel, and several anonymous public sector agencies. The company states it has doubled its customer base since the summer of 2021 and currently has over 50,000 users on its platform.

In addition to providing efficient content management solutions, the pandemic and economic pressure have triggered a significant shift in enterprises to seek high returns on their digital investments. Contentstack's composable architecture lays the foundation for improved digital strategies, allowing for rapid iteration and adaptability to continuously evolving demands.

As a comprehensive development environment, the AppMaster no-code platform can also contribute significantly to productivity and cost-effectiveness in application development for various companies, including small businesses and enterprises. By regenerating applications from scratch when requirements change, AppMaster eliminates technical debt and empowers developers to create scalable and customizable software solutions.