Grammarly taps IPO veterans for CFO and CTO

Dive Summary:

• Grammarly, an AI-powered software provider that helps with grammar checks and other features to improve writing, Navam Welihinda was appointed Welihinda, who most recently served as CFO of software company HashiCorp and led the company’s 2021 initial public offering, will replace Stu West, who currently serves as a corporate advisor, according to a statement Tuesday.
• The San Francisco-based company also named Mark Schaaf as chief technology officer. Schaaf previously served as CTO at Instacart, where he leveraged his IPO experience by building the grocery delivery company’s technical foundation ahead of its 2023 IPO. In his new role, Schaaf will oversee Grammarly’s global engineering organization and increase development of new AI-powered features, the company said. Schaaf replaces former CTO Joe Xavier, who now serves as a corporate advisor.
• The company has “no immediate plans” for an IPO, but “we need experienced leaders who can scale a company that is at a size and scale that most companies rarely reach, and that can scale an already large, high-growth company,” a company spokesperson told CFO Dive in an emailed response. “Both Mark and Navam have successful track records leading companies through transformational periods.”

Diving Insight:

While the company has denied any plans to go public in the near future, the hiring of Schaaf and Welihinda, and a recent job posting on Grammarly, suggest the company is moving in that direction, Shawn Cole said. The president of executive search firm Cowen Partners said in an emailed response to questions.

“They are preparing for an IPO, but not anytime soon in my opinion,” Cole said. One of the clearest indications that an IPO scenario could be in Grammarly’s future is a job posting seeking applicants assistant controller position “At the firm,” Cole said.

Responsibilities listed for the role include: creating a “roadmap for Grammarly’s IPO readiness” and “implementing SOX controls and procedures, preparing for the IPO” and assisting the company in undergoing an annual external audit with a Big Four firm. “(At a Big Four), the only financial reporting you do is SEC (reporting),” Cole said, referring to the Big Four’s signals of working with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Grammarly was founded in Ukraine in 2009 by Max Lytvyn, Alex Shevchenko, and Dima Lider, and still operates there, according to the company’s spokesperson and website. product to protect from plagiarism According to a 2022 blog post by Lytvyn, it has early launched a subscription-based writing assistant tool based on students’ writing, mostly focused on helping correct grammatical errors.

Over the years, the company has expanded its offerings and reach to new users and platforms like Grammarly Business, and has also added help beyond consistency, readability, and tone of grammar, Lytvyn wrote. It’s now used by 30 million people and 70,000 teams, as well as companies like Atlassian and Zoom, the company said in its announcement on Tuesday.

However, it does face some drawbacks. In a June blog post , Grammarly CEO Rahul Roy-Chowdhury accepted chatter He spoke out about perceived threats to their business in the age of artificial intelligence, claiming that “recent reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated” and that the company is thriving.

“While Google, Microsoft and most recently Apple are focusing on developing their own products, Ecosystems with artificial intelligence“Grammarly will be there (as we always have been) wherever you need to communicate,” he wrote. “Only Grammarly has the linguistic expertise, technology, and historical context to deliver the next generation of AI communication assistance. The growing number of players in this space means that the best minds in technology are taking notice of the arena in which Grammarly has long excelled.”

When asked for additional details on possible plans for a long-term IPO, the spokesperson declined to comment further, adding that the company is “focused on delivering value to our customers, executing a robust product roadmap focused on AI, and scaling our business operations.”