G2 (company)

The company was launched in May 2012 by former BigMachines employees, with a focus on aggregating user reviews for business software. It was known as G2 Labs, Inc. until 2013. == Service ==

Platform users can sign in with a LinkedIn account and can review the products they use. To encourage reviewers to participate, some users are compensated by G2.com with gift cards, contest rewards and reputation points on the website. G2 attempts to identify fraudulent user reviews through an algorithm that identifies employees at companies reviewing their own products and employees at companies reviewing their competitor's product. In addition, reviews are manually screened and voted on by the community to discourage spam and unhelpful comments. G2 has also requested screenshots of the reviewer using the product for verification purposes. In 2013, the service was described by ZDNet as a competitor to Gartner's magic quadrant review model. The reviews submitted to G2 are publicly available. Users can filter information provided by reviewers based on company size, user role and user industry. == History ==

In 2012 five former employees of BigMachines – Tim Handorf, Godard Abel, Matt Gorniak, Mark Myers and Mike Wheeler – founded G2, with Abel serving as president. A beta version of the review site launched in December 2012, with several thousand users testing the service before its full launch in 2013. In 2015, G2 raised an additional $7 million in Series A funding led by Pritzker Group Venture Capital. Investors included 2014's contributors in addition to co-founder Godard Abel, Thomas Lehrman, and Scott Dorsey. G2 Crowd announced it would use these funds to invest in its leadership and capabilities. In January 2016, G2 reported more than 400,000 sessions per month, and includes more than 400 product categories. In 2017, G2 secured a $30 million Series B, led by VC Accel with participation from LinkedIn and the company's founders. The funds are being used to help the company expand into services. In early 2018, G2 Cofounders Godard Abel and Matt Gorniak returned to the company. In May 2019, G2 acquired Advocately, a B2B customer advocacy platform, with the aim of amplifying customer voices and accelerating review collection. In 2021, G2 reached a $1.1 billion valuation with a $157 million Series D funding. The Series D funding brought G2's total funding to $257 million and put G2 on the list of Unicorn startups that are valued at over $1 billion. In January 2026, G2 announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire marketplace and review platforms Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp from research company Gartner for an undisclosed amount. == Awards ==

In 2018, G2 was ranked 179 on the Inc. Magazine "Fastest Growing Companies" list. == References ==