AccessiBe
accessiBe is a technology company working to solve the problem of web accessibility through AI. The company has raised $28 million in two rounds of funding. History. accessiBe was founded in 2018 by Dekel Skoop, Gal Vizel and Shir Ekerling. The founders worked on developing proprietary software in order to make websites accessible for people with disabilities. accessiBe launched its software product as a tool that scans and attempts to remediate websites in real-time, attempting to achieve ADA compliance through implementing WCAG 2.1 guidelines. The product claims to make website publishers ADA compliant within hours of deploying  accessiBe's code, so that people with disabilities can easily access and interact with these websites. Fundraising. accessiBe first raised $500,000 from private investors including Nadav Dakner, Elad Mor, Itai Elizur, Oron Yaffe. In May 2020, the company raised $12 million in Series A funding from K1 Investment Management. In February 2021, closed its series A funding with $28 million from K1 Investment Management, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm investing primarily in software and technology private companies across North America, took a minority stake in accessiBe Systems Ltd. with intentions to help accessiBe to expand  in North America. By February 2021, accessiBe’s annual recurring revenue has shown a growth of more than 3.5x in 12 months, which led to additional funding from K1, totaling $28 million. Company leaders have announced that they are planning to use the funds to significantly expand its US presence, grow its R&D department and continue educating the market on the importance of web accessibility. Criticism and concerns. Many web accessibility experts agree that accessibility overlay software like AccessiBe can actually cause accessibility issues and create a false sense of accessibility for their clients. Many industry professionals have criticized  the entire product category. Lawsuits. There have been around 100 lawsuits against companies after they invested in a widget-based solution, most prominently ADP, and two have named accessiBe specifically: Thomas Klaus and Robert Jahoda v Upright Technologies, and Kolesar v. Bylt, LLC.