Private equity firm SFW Capital Partners (SFW) has made a strategic investment in DZone, Inc in partnership with DZone’s co-founders, Rick Ross and Matt Schmidt, who currently serve as the CEO and President/CTO, respectively.
SFW’s principals have supported the growth and development of some of the most successful and well-regarded analytical information, data network and knowledge management companies, including the Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG), AGDATA, MD Buyline, Keypoint Intelligence, Telephia and IAG Research. With SFW’s strategic support and resources, DZone plans to make significant investments to expand its product portfolio, enhance sales and marketing capabilities, access new markets, and meaningfully accelerate growth.
DZone, based in Cary, NC, is a leading platform for software developer focused technical content and a leading provider of knowledge and community management solutions for technology organisations. Founded in 2006 by Rick Ross and Matt Schmidt, DZone is organised into two complementary business units, DZone Media and AnswerHub.
DZone Media (www.dzone.com) represents a multi-sided network, providing user generated technical content to the global software developer audience. From a rapidly growing pool of over 10,000 contributing subject matter experts, DZone aggregates thousands of pieces of technical content delivered to a rapidly growing monthly audience of over five million software developers. With content organised by relevant technology categories (Zones), DZone facilitates deep knowledge sharing, support and communication among a highly engaged community of software developers and leading technology vendors, including six of the top 10 largest software companies.
AnswerHub (www.answerhub.com) offers a comprehensive platform for knowledge sharing and community management designed to enable technology organisations to manage, engage and support their software developer ecosystems. With a broad range of functionality for sharing technical information, facilitating community engagement and soliciting product insights, AnswerHub is well suited to technology organisations looking to encourage the utilisation of their software platforms and API libraries by external stakeholders including third-party developers, partners and customers. Serving many of the world’s leading technology organisations, including five of the top 20 Fortune 500 technology companies, the AnswerHub platform accommodates over 10 million individual users across hundreds of independent developer communities.
“DZone fits perfectly with SFW’s investment focus on businesses that operate multi-sided information networks, critical workflow, and knowledge management solutions,” says SFW’s Omair Sarwar, who will be a member of the DZone Board of Directors. “We look forward to partnering with Rick, Matt and the DZone team to build on and extend the success of the Company.”
“We are extremely excited to be partnering with the SFW team,” says Rick Ross and Matt Schmidt. “After a thorough process evaluating a breadth of investment partners, we feel strongly that SFW’s relevant experience supporting the growth and development of information and software businesses, their deep knowledge of our Company and markets, and their strong industry-specific network will best position DZone for accelerated growth and development.”