Netlify Acquires FeaturePeek for Design Review

Netlify Acquires FeaturePeek to Enhance Design Review Capabilities

Netlify, a company pioneering a microservices-based approach to web development, has announced the acquisition of FeaturePeek, a Y Combinator graduate. The financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed by either company.

Improving Collaboration in Web Development

This acquisition significantly strengthens Netlify’s design review functionality. While Netlify’s Deploy Previews, available since 2016, allowed for website previews, a dedicated system for feedback and discussion was previously absent.

The integration of FeaturePeek expands upon Deploy Previews, enabling stakeholders to provide input, suggest edits, and track changes throughout the design process. This eliminates the need for separate communication channels or delayed feedback cycles.

Addressing a Common Pain Point

Eric Silverman, co-founder of FeaturePeek, previously highlighted how his product alleviated frustration for developers receiving numerous review comments at the last stage of development.

Matt Biilmann, CEO and co-founder of Netlify, explained that Deploy Previews were initially created in response to customers independently developing similar solutions. He noted that despite the preview feature, a need for integrated communication remained.

Build vs. Buy: A Strategic Decision

Netlify initially began developing its own solution internally. However, after a demonstration of FeaturePeek’s capabilities, the company altered its course.

Biilmann stated that the FeaturePeek demo was remarkably impressive, surpassing both Netlify’s internal prototypes and other tools available in the market. He emphasized the importance of a seamless, end-to-end experience from initial code changes to feature releases.

“Building towards this vision as separate entities would not have allowed us to realize our full potential,” Biilmann told TechCrunch, explaining the decision to join forces.

New Release of Deploy Previews

The combined efforts of Netlify and FeaturePeek are now available in a new release of Deploy Previews, incorporating the enhanced collaboration and commenting features from FeaturePeek.

Company Backgrounds

FeaturePeek was established in 2019, participated in the Y Combinator Summer 2019 program, and secured approximately $2 million in funding. Netlify, founded in 2014, has raised over $97 million, with its most recent funding round being a $53 million Series C in March 2020, as reported by Crunchbase.

Here's a summary of key details:

Acquirer: Netlify
Acquired: FeaturePeek
Focus: Enhanced design review and collaboration
Key Feature: Integration of FeaturePeek’s commenting capabilities into Deploy Previews