Israeli AI Web Accessibility Startup AccessiBe Closes $28M Series A Round

Israeli web accessibility solutions startup accessiBe raised another $16 million with K1 Investment Management, completing its Series A financing round with $28 million, the company announced on Wednesday. The company had initially secured $12 million with K1 in May 2020.

Founded in 2018, accessiBe automates the process by which companies and website owners make their content accessible to users with visual, hearing and motor impairments, as well as other functional disabilities. Web accessibility is mandatory in the US and Europe is set to follow suit in the coming years.

AccessiBe’s AI-based solution scans websites and automatically provides key modifications to transmit data and accessible content to end-users in compliance with international and US disability standards, including Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (“WCAG”) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”).

But AccessiBe’s features “go beyond basic WCAG requirements for a browsing experience that truly reflects how people with disabilities want and should be able to browse the web,” wrote AccessiBe CEO Shir Ekerling.

The company recently rolled out accessiBe 3.0 with new Accessibility Profiles for various disabilities. “This is a revolutionary feature for web accessibility that significantly improves the user experience for people with disabilities,” Ekerling said.

He indicated that in the past 12 months, the company “grew by more than 350 percent, doubled our staff, and surpassed the milestone of 100,000 websites made accessible with accessiBe.”

AccessiBe says its plans to use the funds to expand its presence in the US, grow its R&D team, and continue increasing awareness about the importance of web accessibility.

Education and awareness is a key pillar for the company “as the web is fundamentally inaccessible and it’s up to society to make the necessary changes for everyone to have access to it.”