OpenWeb is a

social engagement Social engagement (also social involvement, social participation) refers to one's degree of participation in a community or society. Definitions The term "social engagement" is commonly used to refer to one's participation in the activities o ...

platform that builds

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around

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. OpenWeb works with publishers to bring conversations back from social networks to publisher sites. OpenWeb's technology allows publishers and online content creators to host and moderate comments sections, Polls, " Ask Me Anything"s and Live Blogs. Their products also include a module that allows users to track topics, an insights dashboard, and several advertising modules.

History

The company was founded in 2015 as Spot.IM by Israeli software architects Nadav Shoval and Ishay Green. Roee Goldberg joined as Co-Founder and COO in 2014. In 2016, Spot.IM raised $13 million from

Index Ventures Index Ventures is a European venture capital firm with headquarters in both San Francisco and London. It invests primarily in tech companies. History Index Ventures has its origins in a Switzerland, Swiss bond (finance), bond-trading firm cal ...

and AltaIR Capital, along with other notable technology investors, in a

Series A A series A is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. It can be followed by the word round, investment or financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...

round. In 2017, co-founder and CEO, Nadav Shoval, was inducted into the second annual

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Israel 30 Under 30 list. In addition, the company finalized its Series C investment round of $25M, led by New York City-based fund - Insight Partners, Altair VC, and more. In 2019, Spot.IM raised $25 million in Series D funding. The new funding was led by previous investor Insight Partners along with Norma Investments, AltaIR Capital, Cerca and WGI Group. In 2020, the company was renamed OpenWeb. In November 2021, OpenWeb raised a $150M Series E financing round which included investment from

Insight Partners Insight Venture Management, LLC (commonly referred to as Insight Partners and previously Insight Venture Partners) is a global venture capital and private equity firm that invests in high-growth technology, software, and internet businesses. The ...

, Georgian,

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, Samsung Next, Dentsu Ventures, Harel, Entrée Capital, Omer Cygler, and Scott Galloway. This round of investment pushed the company's valuation over $1 billion. In November 2022, OpenWeb announced a Series F round of funding at $170M, valuing the company at over $1.5 billion. In February 2022, the company acquired Hive Media Group for a mix of cash and stock, with a total value of $60M. In April 2022, OpenWeb acquired French advertising company Adyoulike for a mix of cash and stock, with a total value of $100M. In January 2023, OpenWeb acquired personalization and monetization platform Jeeng. In September 2024 Nadav Shoval was replaced by Tim Harvey as CEO, purportedly after a disagreement over a potential investment from

BlackRock BlackRock, Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multinational investment company. Founded in 1988, initially as an enterprise risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager ...

. Nadav Shoval refused to step down as CEO, but he was removed from OpenWeb's leadership page. Shoval attempted to be reinstated as CEO by filing an injunction with an Israeli court, however he was unsuccessful. In February 2025, Nadal Shoval was allowed to return to OpenWeb as an advisor to the CEO.

Criticism

OpenWeb has been criticized by users on

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for promoting censorship through their opaque moderation guidelines. The company has also been criticized for providing advertising services to

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's far-right publication The Populist Press (now Political Signal), as well as Russian state media outlet RT. Following public scrutiny in 2023, OpenWeb cut their ties to RT but maintains its partnership with the Populist Press.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.openweb.com/ Companies based in Tel Aviv Internet properties established in 2015 Online companies of Israel

History

Criticism

See also

References

External links