Zend Technologies - History

History

Zend Technologies was founded by Andi Gutmans and Zeev Suraski who, along with other Israeli graduates of the Technion, developed PHP after its creation by Rasmus Lerdorf.

In 1997, Gutmans and Suraski rewrote the parser of PHP-FI, which has been written by Lerdorf; resulting in PHP 3. In 1998 they redesigned that parser completely, and named it the Zend Engine. The name Zend is a combination of Suraski's and Gutmans' forenames, Zeev and Andi. PHP 4 is based on the first version of the Zend Engine.

In 1999, their company Zend Technologies was formally established and received initial funding from Israeli venture capital funds Platinum Neurone Ventures and Walden Israel, an experienced business executive, Doron Gerstel, was recruited to head the company as a CEO.

In July 2004, Zend Technologies raised $8M in a series C funding and established a headquarters in the USA. In January 2005 Intel Capital and SAP ventures joined the existing investors in Zend Technologies.

In June 2006, Zend Technologies received the Best Startup Software Company Award at the Israeli Venture Association Annual Hi Tech Conference in Tel Aviv. The award was presented by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. In August 2006 Zend raised $20 Million in a series D funding.

In February 2009, Zend's Co-Founder Andi Gutmans was appointed as Chief Executive Officer, after previously serving as the company's VP of Research and Development. Zend also recruited Mark Burton, who previously served as EVP of worldwide sales and alliances at MySQL, as Executive Chairman.

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