The shortage of technical talent for U.S. companies grows more dire by the day. That’s why tech startups are offering increasingly over-the-top perks to new hires—equity is no longer enough—and that’s why companies with access to developers are flourishing. New York-based Stack Exchange is one of those companies: The startup, which has reached 26 million developers through its question and answer site Stack Overflow, has helped more than 10,000 companies, including Microsoft and Amazon (AMZN), recruit those developers.
Today, the company announces a new $40 million Series D round of funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round and existing investors Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital, Bezos Expeditions, and Index Ventures participated. Stack Overflow, founded in 2008, has raised a total of $70 million in venture funding. The company did not disclose its valuation or revenue, but said it is not profitable.
Stack Exchange believes there are 26 million programmers in the world, which means every one of them has visited or used Stack Exchange once, a company representative says. Serving developers is a “compulsive, fanatical obsession,” according to CEO Joel Spolsky. Stack Overflow has become “the indispensable home to the world’s programmers,” says Chris Dixon, the Andreessen Horowitz partner leading the deal. The company’s goal, with this capital, is to expand the question-and-answer site’s offerings with more tools to help developers get better jobs.
Currently, Stack Exchange earns a third of its revenue from an advertising product that allows companies like Microsoft (MSFT) market its products to developers. With this new funding, Stack Exchange will invest more heavily in its Careers products, which include job listings and a candidate search database. Clients pay anywhere from $495 for a 30-day job posting to thousands of dollars for annual job postings.
The 200-person company will also use the capital to release its site in Japanese, Russian, and Spanish and invest in expanding its Q&A community. Currently, the majority of its users are located in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France.
