Semrush raised only $37 million in its first twelve years, then went public worth more than a billion dollars. Its tools showed marketers why a competitor showed up first on Google. Semrush tracked keywords, ads, and links across the web, and it sold that view by subscription. Most customers signed up on their own, with no sales call. By the end of 2020, it had 67,000 paying customers in 142 countries.

One Tool Became Fifty

Oleg Shchegolev and Dmitry Melnikov founded Semrush in 2008. It began as a single product for search engine optimization. The founders kept costs low and grew mostly on their own revenue. The bet was a free tier and a cheap self-serve plan, so customers could find the tool, try it, and pay without talking to anyone. By its IPO, Semrush sold more than 50 products, tools, and add-ons.

A Slow Start, Then Adobe

Semrush cut the size of its offering and priced at $14 a share, the low end of its range, in March 2021. It began trading on the NYSE under the ticker SEMR and fell about 20 percent on its first day. The company kept growing its subscriptions. In November 2025 Adobe agreed to buy Semrush for $1.9 billion. Adobe closed the deal on April 28, 2026.

Cover: Chattanooga Valley from Lookout Mountain, No. 2, George N. Barnard. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a lookout over a valley (seeing who is visible).