Netlify seems to be making a play for the enterprise market. But what does that mean for the company's doting web developer community?

After raising a $105M Series D round, DXP Report Founder Kaya Ismail tweeted out his thoughts on where some of that cash might be allocated:

.@Netlify’s $105M Series D is unsurprising, but hugely interesting.

I’ve noticed a shift in Netlify’s content recently. They love the developer community, but they want the attention of enterprises now. This cash injection should help.

— Kaya Ismail (@KayaIsmail) November 17, 2021

We reached out to Netlify's Co-founder Chris Bach and Jason Lengstorf, VP of Developer Experience at Netlify, to find more about what this influx of cash means for the company's strategy.

He asked if this cash injection would be aimed at propelling Netlify away from its grassroots developer community and into the world of enterprise Jamstack adoption.

Here's what we learned.

Community First, But With an Eye on the Prize

In our conversation, Jason Lengstorf, Netlify's VP of Developer Experience, exclusively shared the following.

"We know that our greatest strength is our community. This round of funding allows us to go all-in on empowering developers to build a better web, not just inside of Netlify but across the entire ecosystem."

That said, Netlify has undoubtedly been flirting with the enterprise market for some time, launching new enterprise-geared areas of their website along with swathes of enterprise-focused content around security, personalization, and large website management.

The content is working, too. In the State of Jamstack 2021 survey (link courtesy of Kentico and Luminary), 64% of the surveyed developers working in enterprise companies with 250+ employees are familiar with the definition of Jamstack —and Netlify for good measure, a 10% increase compared to 2020.

The Significance of Netlify's OneGraph Acquisition

Just as Netlify's funding round closed, the company revealed its acquisition of OneGraph, a GraphQL-based platform that simplifies the integration and management of APIs and services.

Netlify claimed that the acquisition would, "drive innovation in the Netlify platform to make it even easier to compose apps with APIs and services."

The move has already borne fruit, as Netlify swiftly launched API Authentication as a feature in tandem with the OneGraph news.

Bach stated that, "the next challenge [for Netlify] is consuming, adopting, and integrating this explosion of services without sacrificing developer experience and performance. The way forward is to unite the Jamstack ecosystem, which is why we're so excited to announce OneGraph joining Netlify."

By integrating OneGraph with Netlify, Jamstack developers will also be able to natively integrate with every major web framework, API, and developer tool, which is definitely a move in the right direction, especially in terms of extensibility.  

It's not a bad move if you're targeting enterprise customers, either–which Netlify is extremely capable of.

The Jamstack is proving itself to be as scalable as Matt Billman and Chris Bach dreamed it would be. Companies like Twilio, an enterprise company with a $60B market cap, run Twilio Console as a Jamstack app on Netlify. Also, Spring is using Netlify to build and power over 6 million eCommerce storefronts.  

The existence of such customers likely played a key role in determining the size of that Series D, too.

Understanding the $10M Jamstack Innovation Fund

To keep its connection to the grassroots of Jamstack, Netlify also announced a Jamstack Innovation Fund, which aims to support startups with funding and advisory services.

Bach explained that, "to fuel the developer revolution and advance the modern web, Netlify is committed to investing and driving innovation through the Jamstack ecosystem. That's why we, alongside the funding announcement, also are launching our new ecosystem Innovation Fund where we plan to invest $10M in a program that combines funding with startup advisory."

Combining the words of Bach and Lengstorf, along with the clear direction of Netlify's increasingly enterprise-y content and customer base, I'm of the opinion that, although Netlify is bullish on landing enterprise clients, the company knows that it can't shun the community that helped forge their success.

So, fear not, Jamstackers. Thanks to these cash injections, I don't foresee Netlify ignoring its initial community. At least, I certainly hope not.