Instart

Instart was an American multinational computer technology corporation, headquartered in Palo Alto, California.^[2] The company specialized primarily in improving online content delivery speeds.^[3][4] The company also offered software designed to increase online advertising by accelerating the rate at which ads loaded and preventing blockers or filters from blocking ads.^[5][6][7]

Instart

Founded	2010[1]
Dissolved	2020
Successor(s)	Akamai
Headquarters	Palo Alto, California, U.S.
Key people	Sumit Dhawan, CEO Jony Hartono, CFO Hariharan Kolam, CTO Natalie Lambert, CMO Thirumalesh Reddy, SVP Mitch Parker, CCO
Industry	Internet
URL	www.instart.com[dead link]

The company had offices in New York, London, Bangalore and Sydney.^[8] As of September 2017^[update], the company claimed that it processed 60 billion transactions per day.^[9]

On February 27, 2020, Akamai announced that it had acquired Instart's customers and select intellectual property.^[10][11][12]

History

In 2010, the company was founded in an attempt to improve the speed of downloading and updating video games.^[13]

In the fall of 2014, the company started a US$100 million contract buyout program for Akamai customers.^[14]

In February 2016, Instart acquired Kwicr, a mobile app accelerator.^[15]

In June 2018, the company shortened its name to Instart from Instart Logic. Instart was a shortened form of "Instant Start".

Notable clients included Neiman Marcus,^[16] Cafe Media, Edmunds, Bonnier, Ziff Davis, CBS, Tronc, TUI Group, Telstra and Kate Spade.^[17][18]

Financing

Instart had received $140 million in 6 rounds of funding from 10 investors:

• Series A: In February 2012 Instart Logic received $9 million as first round of funding
• Series B: In April 2013 Instart Logic received $17 million
• Series C: In May 2014 Instart Logic received $26 million
• Series C2: In May 2015, Instart Logic closed a $13 million^[19] expansion funding led by new investors Four Rivers Group and Hermes Growth Partners, in addition to existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Tenaya Capital
• Series D: In January 2016 Instart Logic received $45 million^[20][21] funding from Geodesic Capital, Telstra Ventures,^[22][23] Stanford-StartX Fund, Harris Barton Asset Management and participation from existing investors
• Series E: In November 2017 Instart Logic closed $30 million of equity funding led by ST Telemedia with all other prior investors participating^[2]

Products

Instart products included:

• Instart Digital Experience Cloud
• Cloud and Web Application Performance Optimization
• Mobile Application Performance Optimization
• Image Optimization
• Tag Analytics and Control
• Advertising Acceleration and Viewability Optimization
• Digital Advertising and Marketing Recovery
• Web Application Firewall
• DDOS Attack Protection
• Bot Management and Security
• Instart Content Delivery Network
• Nanovisor

Reception

The company was named to the visionary category of the Web Application Firewall magic quadrant by Gartner Group in September 2017.^[9]

Instart was ranked by Business Insider as No. 1 among the 17 best startups to work for in America.^[24]