Prezi has come a long way since the days it was a struggling startup in Budapest building a new way for people to create presentations to blow the mind of an audience. Today they have over 100 employees and a San Francisco HQ. It’s become a popular alternative to Microsoft PowerPoint and Keynote, and the company is even now advised by Jack Dorsey.
At DLD in Munich last week I ran into Peter Arvai, Prezi CEO and Co-founder, where he revealed – on the video here – that after announcing 15 million users last October, they are now on 18 million users. He said they are also course to book 2 million more users per month over the next year. Clearly they are hitting an exponential growth curve.
One of their key areas is Asia, where their simple business model has appealed to users who like the lightweight Prezi model, which doesn’t require desktop software. For instance, there are already five books out about how to use and create presentations on Prezi.
If you’re not familiar with Prezi, it uses a map-like metaphor for creating presentations instead of a slideshow. So you can use it in a or linear or non-linear way. In addition, if you’re caught out on the road and don’t have access to you laptop, you presentations will sync to you iPhone and iPad.
The company was co-founded by Hungarian architect/artist/designer Adam Somlai-Fischer with Peter Halacsy and Peter Arvai in 2009 and has raised a $14 million Series B led by Accel Partners. Previously it raised Series A financing from Sunstone Capital.