Spiceworks
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Investors
Founders
About
Spiceworks was a free IT management platform and professional network for IT professionals, founded in Austin, Texas in January 2006 by Scott Abel, Jay Hallberg, Greg Kattawar, and Francis Sullivan 1. The company pioneered an ad-supported model for enterprise software, offering free network monitoring, help desk, and community tools used by over 6 million IT professionals across 200+ countries 2. Spiceworks was acquired by Ziff Davis (a division of J2 Global) in September 2019 3.
Funding History
| Date | Round | Amount | Lead | Co-investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2006 | Series A | $5M | Austin Ventures | — 4 |
| Aug 2007 | Series B | $8M | Shasta Ventures | Austin Ventures 5 |
| Jan 2010 | Series C | $16M | Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) | Austin Ventures, Shasta Ventures 6 |
| Apr 2011 | Series D | $25M | Adams Street Partners, Tenaya Capital | Austin Ventures, Shasta Ventures, IVP 7 |
| Feb 2014 | Series E | $57M | Goldman Sachs | Adams Street Partners, Tenaya Capital, Austin Ventures, IVP, Shasta Ventures 2 |
What Investors Say
“The emergence of professional networks like Spiceworks represents the next wave of social innovation. Spiceworks has a unique platform for technology brands to directly access a rapidly-growing, critical, and underserved market of IT professionals that commands over $525 billion of spend today.” — David Campbell, Managing Director, Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division 2
What Founders Say
“Spiceworks has reached the tipping point all high-growth, successful social and professional networks experience as they evolve to reshape how we do business.” — Scott Abel, Co-Founder and CEO 2
“My God, that’s not an if, it’s a when. We’ll be irrelevant.” — Scott Abel, on co-founder Jay Hallberg’s challenge about defending a subscription model against free competitors, which led the team to pivot to an ad-supported model 8
Sources
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Spiceworks, Wikipedia, accessed March 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiceworks↩
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“Spiceworks Closes $57 Million Funding Round to Accelerate Growth of Professional Network for IT,” GlobeNewsWire, February 4, 2014, accessed March 2026. https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2014/02/04/1129402/0/en/Spiceworks-Closes-57-Million-Funding-Round-to-Accelerate-Growth-of-Professional-Network-for-IT.html↩↩↩↩
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“Ziff Davis B2B Completes Acquisition of Spiceworks,” BusinessWire, September 19, 2019, accessed March 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190919005143/en/Ziff-Davis-B2B-Completes-Acquisition-of-Spiceworks↩
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“Spiceworks Funding Rounds & Investors,” Tracxn, accessed March 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/companies/spiceworks/__t5VF7hPc9HbZC8Qo0abiPA8qBLuftCK9QiyXuJT6UcI/funding-and-investors↩
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“SpiceWorks Raises $8 Million; Google Adsense Even Supports IT Software,” TechCrunch, August 27, 2007, accessed March 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2007/08/27/spiceworks-raises-8-million-google-adsense-even-supports-it-software/↩
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“Spiceworks Raises $16 Million in Series C Funding,” IVP, accessed March 2026. https://www.ivp.com/news/press-release/spiceworks-raises-16-million-in-series-c-funding/↩
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“Spiceworks Raises $25 Million to Bring Integrated Commerce to World’s Largest Social Network of IT Buyers,” BusinessWire, April 28, 2011, accessed March 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110428005104/en/Spiceworks-Raises-25-Million-Bring-Integrated-Commerce↩
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“Spiceworks Pioneers the Social Way to Do IT and Gets $57 Million Funding,” SiliconHills News, February 3, 2014, accessed March 2026. https://www.siliconhillsnews.com/2014/02/03/spiceworks-pioneers-the-social-way-to-do-it-and-gets-57-million-funding/↩