Evinced Raises $38M Series B as Enterprises Shift Digital Accessibility Efforts Toward Software Model
PALO ALTO, Calif., June 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Evinced, the leading software company powering accessible web and mobile development, today announced a $38 million Series B funding round. The round was led by global software investor Insight Partners with participation from existing investors M12 (Microsoft's venture fund), BGV, Capital One Ventures, and Engineering Capital, bringing the total raised to date to $57 million.
A software-first approach
Large companies know that it makes business sense to ensure the broadest possible access to their websites and mobile apps. Yet the traditional approach for companies has been to rely on expensive, infrequent manual audits and large, usually external, service consulting teams as a way of guiding their developers.
Evinced's software-first approach means accessibility is bolted into every line of code that developers commit into the software development cycle. This allows internal accessibility resources to build effective partnerships with internal engineering leadership, dramatically improving speed to market while minimizing business risk.
"What we're seeing is pent-up demand," said co-founder and CEO Navin Thadani. "Since we solved most of the technical problems that made large enterprises rely on a manual approach to digital accessibility in the first place, they're excited to see that finally they can truly "shift left," which makes everyone – customers, employees, and the world – a winner."
Rapid adoption
Since launch in 2021, Evinced's web and mobile accessibility solutions have been seamlessly integrated into the enterprise development process of a host of forward-thinking enterprises, including:
- Four of the nation's 10 largest financial institutions
- Two of the nation's three largest B2B SaaS companies
- One of the nation's five largest healthcare companies
Evinced's technical advances enable automatic discovery, clustering, and tracking of accessibility issues that were only possible previously through difficult manual processes:
- Evinced identifies problems in accessibility for screen reader and keyboard-reliant users, employing computer vision to understand the context of each element on a screen.
- Evinced uses AI to recognize color contrast problems on complex backgrounds.
- Evinced analyzes a site's accessibility issues according to the coding practices that are behind each of the problems. These "components" help customers know where they can get the most accessibility improvement with limited resources.
- Evinced tracks accessibility issues over time and automatically knows which issues are new and which are pre-existing, and can even track resolution.
Growing market – and the need for mobile
At least 2.2 billion people depend on assistive technology in order to effectively interact with websites and mobile applications. Now, with stricter ADA compliance regulations and an increase in web accessibility lawsuits, the need for digital accessibility is higher than ever.
"As a former operator, thorough accessibility testing was something my teams knew mattered but we could never wrap our heads around," said Michael Yamnitsky, Managing Director at Insight Partners. "Evinced 'just works' and is gaining rapid adoption across today's leading brands. We're thrilled to partner with the team as they make accessibility testing a standard component of the development pipeline."
Another exciting aspect of Evinced's Series B funding will be the continued expansion of its mobile offerings. Last year, Evinced launched the industry's first complete portfolio of products to enable enterprise developers to weave accessibility into their iOS and Android mobile app development process. With over 70 percent of internet users predicted to only use their smartphones to get online by 2025, Evinced mobile accessibility solutions are built for scale and can be used by any enterprise developer looking to test a mobile app for critical accessibility issues.
About Evinced
Since launching in 2021, Evinced is the leading software for integrating accessibility into web and mobile development at the world's largest, most accessibility-committed companies. Evinced's powerful suite of tools enable developers and accessibility professionals to automatically find, cluster, and track accessibility issues, reduce reliance on manual processes, minimize risk, and speed up their time to market. Evinced is headquartered in California, with offices across the US, Europe, and Israel, and is backed by leading investors like Insight Partners, M12 (Microsoft's venture arm), BGV, Capital One Ventures, and others.
To learn more please visit: https://www.evinced.com/
About Insight Partners
Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with high-growth technology, software, and Internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of February 24, 2022, the closing of the firm's recent fundraise, Fund XII, brings Insight Partners' regulatory assets under management to over $90B. Insight Partners has invested in more than 600 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has offices in London, Tel Aviv, and Palo Alto. 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. Insight Partners meets great software leaders where they are in their growth journey, from their first investment to IPO. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on Twitter @insightpartners.