6 min readUpdated Jun 30, 2021

Ably announces $70 million Series B funding from Insight Partners and Dawn Capital

New investment to fuel continued growth, as Ably is projected to power synchronized digital experiences in realtime for one billion devices per month by 2023

London 30 June 2021 – Ably, the platform that powers synchronized digital experiences in realtime, today announced it has closed a $70 million Series B funding round co-led by Insight Partners and Dawn Capital LLP. Existing investors Triple Point, Digital Horizon, Forward Partners, and MMC Ventures, also participated in this new funding round. The funding will support and accelerate Ably’s growth and continued platform innovation to provide organizations with a comprehensive solution to offload the growing complexity of realtime data synchronization at scale for distributed applications, devices, and hybrid cloud environments. Ably currently reaches 250 million devices and serves 500 customers across 80 countries per month.

Data consumed in realtime powers many digital experiences, whether it be virtual events, news and financial information, or connected IoT devices. Realtime data is only a fraction of the data consumed today, but by 2025 it is estimated that it will be 30% of all global data. However, building homegrown realtime synchronization capabilities is complex and costly. Ably simplifies this; it is the de facto platform for developers at organizations of all sizes, empowering the likes of Bloomberg, HubSpot, Hopin, Verizon and Tennis Australia to deliver realtime experiences to their users.

“When we launched Ably five years ago, we had a clear vision that realtime interactions would underpin rather than just augment our everyday digital experiences. Today, our most important daily and digital experiences happen in realtime. It’s business critical now, and organizations realize they must keep up and transform to remain relevant,” said Matthew O’Riordan, CEO and Co-founder of Ably. “Yet, at the same time, most don’t have the in-house capabilities nor the time to do this efficiently at scale. Early on we made technology decisions to provide a global edge network engineered for efficiency, reliability and ease of use. In the same way that content delivery networks underpin large parts of the internet, Ably is the invisible platform and infrastructure layer that powers synchronized digital experiences in realtime at speed and at scale.”

Max Freiert, Product Group Lead at HubSpot, commented, “Ably is one of the key technologies that underpins our business. Its realtime platform and infrastructure layer seamlessly supports HubSpot’s entire realtime needs, helping us to meet our technical, business, and product development requirements. With Ably we have innovated and taken new products to market much faster while significantly reducing our operational engineering overhead.”

Ably currently employs 65 people; it plans to add a further 125 hires to strengthen its core UK team and grow a strong US presence over the next 15 months.

“Insight has an established track record of investing in industry disruptors and Ably is a natural fit for our portfolio,” said Teddie Wardi, Managing Director at Insight Partners. “Ably has demonstrated it is a visionary when it comes to solving the challenges of synchronizing digital experiences in realtime. The company is already the market leader and is primed for further growth in what we believe is an uncapped market.”

Norman Fiore, General Partner and Co-founder at Dawn Capital, commented, “We all live our lives in realtime. And now, we expect our digital lives to reflect this - whether tracking parcels, gaming with friends, querying inventory or updating business-critical infrastructure. As the infrastructure and platform powering these experiences, Ably is helping companies operate in realtime. I’m both hugely impressed by what Ably has achieved to date and excited to be supporting the team to innovate and scale further.”


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About Ably

Our everyday digital experiences are in the midst of a realtime revolution. Whether attending an event in a virtual venue, receiving realtime financial information, or monitoring live car performance data – consumers simply expect realtime digital experiences as standard. As a result, synchronized data in realtime is business critical for many organizations. But building homegrown realtime synchronization capabilities is complex and costly. Ably simplifies this.

Ably is the platform to power synchronized digital experiences in realtime. We provide a suite of APIs to build, extend, and deliver powerful event-driven applications. Organizations such as Bloomberg, HubSpot, Hopin, Verizon and Tennis Australia depend on Ably to offload the growing complexity of business critical realtime data synchronization so they can grow revenue and market share.

In the same way that content delivery networks simplify and underpin large parts of the internet, Ably is the invisible platform and infrastructure layer powering the realtime revolution on a global scale. As the de facto platform for developers at organizations of all sizes, Ably is on track to reach one billion devices per month by 2023.

For further information please visit www.ably.com.

About Insight Partners

Insight Partners is a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology and software ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. Founded in 1995, Insight Partners has invested in more than 400 companies worldwide and has raised through a series of funds more than $30 billion in capital commitments. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with practical, hands-on software expertise to foster long-term success. Across its people and its portfolio, Insight encourages a culture around a belief that ScaleUp companies and growth create opportunity for all. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on Twitter @insightpartners.

About Dawn Capital

Dawn is Europe’s leading specialist B2B software investor, with assets under management of $1.5bn. The firm partners with innovative companies that, through exceptional teams, products, and business models can become category-defining, global titans. Dawn is an early-stage investor, backing companies at Series A and B, and continuing to fund the best-performing from growth rounds through to exit. Its roster of investments includes Mimecast (now NASDAQ-listed with a $3.0bn market cap), iZettle (sold to PayPal for $2.2bn cash), Collibra, Showpad, Dataiku, Templafy, Soldo, Quantexa, and Tink, amongst others. Readmore at dawncapital.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Media enquiries

Alex Crawshaw, Spark Communications

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Tel: +44 (0)20 7436 0420

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