Company:Vercel

From HandWiki
Vercel Inc.
FormerlyZEIT (2015–2020)
TypePrivate
Industry
Founded2015; 11 years ago (2015)
FounderGuillermo Rauch
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
,
U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Guillermo Rauch (CEO)
Number of employees
550 (2025)[1]
Websitevercel.com

Vercel Inc. is an American cloud application company. The company created and maintains the Next.js web development framework.[2]

Vercel provides developer tools, frameworks, and cloud infrastructure to build and maintain websites.[3] It is the maker of v0[4] and AI SDK. [5] In September 2025, Vercel raised $300 million in a Series F funding round co-led by Accel and GIC, valuing the company at $9.3 billion.[6] The company maintains a free open-source library for building AI-generated products.[7]

History

Vercel was founded by Guillermo Rauch in 2015 as ZEIT.[8][9] Rauch had previously created the realtime event-driven communication library Socket.IO[10] and Next.js, the open source framework that Vercel optimized for their platform.[2] ZEIT was rebranded to Vercel in April 2020, although it retained the company's triangular logo.[8][11]

In June 2021, Vercel raised $102 million in a Series C funding round.[12] In 2023, Vercel released an AI web development tool called v0 that creates web applications with natural language prompts;[4] it won a 2025 Webby Award for developer tools.[13] In 2023, Vercel released a software development kit called AI SDK[14] designed to allow developers to build conversational streaming interfaces in JavaScript and TypeScript.[15] In May 2024, Vercel raised $250 million in a funding round which valued the company at $3.25 billion.[4]

In September 2025, Vercel faced backlash after CEO Guillermo Rauch met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid the Gaza war to discuss artificial intelligence and its application in Israel's economy and defense.[16][17] In response, several users stated intentions to migrate their applications off of Vercel.[17]

In March 2026, Vercel appointed Mitchell Hashimoto, co-founder of HashiCorp and creator of Terraform and Vagrant, to its board of directors.[18]

2026 breach

On April 19, 2026, Vercel disclosed a security breach in which certain internal systems were accessed by unauthorized actors. According to the company, the breach originated from the third-party AI tool Context.ai being compromised,[19][20] which, according to cybersecurity firm Hudson Rock, originated from Lumma Stealer malware infecting an employee's computer after they tried downloading Roblox cheat scripts.[21] The attacker breached a Vercel employee's Google Workspace account, accessing "some Vercel environments and environment variables that were not marked as 'sensitive'". A threat actor claiming to be part of ShinyHunters claimed responsibility and offered stolen data for sale at $2 million on BreachForums, though the post was later deleted and the group reportedly denied involvement.[22]

Acquisitions

Vercel has acquired a number of other companies:

  • in December 2021, Vercel acquired Turborepo.[23]
  • in October 2022, Vercel acquired Splitbee.[24]
  • in January 2025, Vercel acquired Tremor.[25]
  • in July 2025, Vercel acquired NuxtLabs.[26][27]

Architecture

Vercel's architecture is built around composable architecture, and deployments are handled through Git repositories, the Vercel CLI, or the Vercel REST API. Vercel is a member of the MACH Alliance.

Deployments through Vercel are handled through Git repositories, with support for GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket repositories.[b 1] Deployments are automatically given a subdomain under the vercel.app domain,[28] although Vercel offers support for custom domains for deployments.[b 1]

Vercel's infrastructure uses Amazon Web Services.

In 2025, Vercel introduced a web application infrastructure model called Fluid that enables an instance in a local region to handle multiple requests concurrently, similar to a traditional server, while also maintaining the elasticity of serverless systems.[29]

References

Bibliography

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 So, Preston (September 9, 2021). Gatsby: The Definitive Guide. O'Reilly Media. p. 367. ISBN 9781492087489. https://books.google.com/books?id=pDhCEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA367. 

Citations

  1. ↑ Garfinkle, Allie (January 25, 2025). "For startups, remote work versus return-to-office is a balance—and an experiment". Fortune. https://fortune.com/2025/01/24/for-startups-remote-work-versus-return-to-office-is-a-balance-and-an-experiment/. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 MacManus, Richard (20 July 2020). "How Vercel Frees Frontend Developers from Backend Burden". The New Stack. https://thenewstack.io/vercels-frontend-and-the-rise-of-the-hybrid-developer/. 
  3. ↑ Lawson, Lorraine (5 February 2025). "Vercel Rolls Out More Cost-Effective Infrastructure Model". The New Stack. https://thenewstack.io/vercel-rolls-out-more-cost-effective-infrastructure-model/. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Tong, Anna (16 May 2024). "Exclusive: Vercel completes $250 mln Series E round at $3.25 bln valuation". Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/technology/vercel-completes-250-mln-series-e-round-325-bln-valuation-2024-05-16/. 
  5. ↑ "Vercel Introduces SDK for Building AI Apps with React and Svelte". CMS Critic. 19 June 2023. https://cmscritic.com/vercel-introduces-sdk-for-building-ai-apps-with-react-and-svelte. 
  6. ↑ "Vercel Closes Series F at $9.3B Valuation to Scale the AI Cloud". Yahoo Finance. 2025-09-30. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/vercel-closes-series-f-9-150000846.html. 
  7. ↑ MacManus, Richard (31 August 2023). "Vercel’s Next Big Thing: AI SDK and Accelerator for Devs". The New Stack. https://thenewstack.io/vercels-next-big-thing-ai-sdk-and-accelerator-for-devs/. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Pimentel, Benjamin (April 21, 2022). "The 29-year-old founder of Vercel used this pitch deck to raise $21 million from investors like Accel and GitHub's CEO to build faster websites". Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/vercel-zeit-pitch-deck-21-million-accel-github-ceo-2020-4. 
  9. ↑ Carey, Scott (February 21, 2022). "Vercel, Netlify, and the new era of serverless PaaS". InfoWorld. https://www.infoworld.com/article/3650751/vercel-netlify-and-the-new-era-of-serverless-paas.html. 
  10. ↑ Krill, Paul (June 2, 2014). "Socket.IO JavaScript framework ready for real-time apps". InfoWorld. https://www.infoworld.com/article/2607757/socket-io-javascript-framework-ready-for-real-time-apps.html. 
  11. ↑ Anderson, Tim (April 22, 2020). "News sure to ex-Zeit: Next.js company reborn as Vercel". The Register. https://www.theregister.com/2020/04/22/nextjs_vercel_logowatch/. 
  12. ↑ Lardinois, Frederic (June 23, 2021). "Vercel raises $102M Series C for its front-end development platform". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/23/vercel-raises-102m-series-c-for-its-next-js-based-front-end-development-platform/. 
  13. ↑ "Webby Winner, v0 from Vercel". https://winners.webbyawards.com/2025/apps-software/software-services-platforms/developer-tools/321965/v0-from-vercel. 
  14. ↑ "Vercel Introduces SDK for Building AI Apps with React and Svelte". CMS Critic. 19 June 2023. https://cmscritic.com/vercel-introduces-sdk-for-building-ai-apps-with-react-and-svelte. 
  15. ↑ MacManus, Richard (31 August 2023). "Vercel’s Next Big Thing: AI SDK and Accelerator for Devs". The New Stack. https://thenewstack.io/vercels-next-big-thing-ai-sdk-and-accelerator-for-devs/. 
  16. ↑ "Netanyahu holds quiet AI talks with U.S. tech executives in New York" (in en). 2025-09-30. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/bkgg5gtngx. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Lyon, Jacob (2025-09-30). "Vercel faces user exodus after CEO picture with Benjamin Netanyahu" (in en-US). https://protos.com/vercel-faces-user-exodus-after-ceo-picture-with-benjamin-netanyahu/. 
  18. ↑ "Vercel Appoints Mitchell Hashimoto, Co-Founder of HashiCorp and Creator of Terraform, to Board of Directors". 2026-03-18. https://www.morningstar.com/news/business-wire/20260318957008/vercel-appoints-mitchell-hashimoto-co-founder-of-hashicorp-and-creator-of-terraform-to-board-of-directors. 
  19. ↑ "Vercel April 2026 security incident" (in en-us). https://vercel.com/kb/bulletin/vercel-april-2026-security-incident. 
  20. ↑ "Vercel Breach Tied to Context AI Hack Exposes Limited Customer Credentials" (in en). The Hacker News. https://thehackernews.com/2026/04/vercel-breach-tied-to-context-ai-hack.html. 
  21. ↑ James, Luke (20 April 2026). "AI cloud company Vercel breached after employee grants AI tool unrestricted access to Google Workspace — hacker seeking $2 million for stolen data" (in en). Tom's Hardware. https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cyber-security/vercel-breached-after-employee-grants-ai-tool-unrestricted-access-to-google-workspace. 
  22. ↑ Kovacs, Eduard (20 April 2026). "Next.js Creator Vercel Hacked". SecurityWeek. https://www.securityweek.com/next-js-creator-vercel-hacked/. 
  23. ↑ Lardinois, Frederic (December 9, 2021). "Vercel acquires Turborepo". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/09/vercel-acquires-turborepo/. 
  24. ↑ Dee, Katie (October 25, 2022). "Vercel announces Next.js 13 along with the acquisition of Splitbee". SD Times. https://sdtimes.com/software-development/vercel-announces-next-js-13-along-with-plans-to-acquire-splitbee/. 
  25. ↑ Occhino, Tom (2025-01-22). "Vercel acquires Tremor to invest in open source React components" (in en). https://vercel.com/blog/vercel-acquires-tremor. 
  26. ↑ Chopin, Sébastien (2025-07-08). "NuxtLabs is joining Vercel". https://nuxtlabs.com/. 
  27. ↑ "NuxtLabs joins Vercel". 2025-07-08. https://vercel.com/blog/nuxtlabs-joins-vercel. 
  28. ↑ Tyson, Matthew (April 21, 2022). "Go serverless with Vercel, SvelteKit, and MongoDB". InfoWorld. https://www.infoworld.com/article/3655952/go-serverless-with-vercel-sveltekit-and-mongodb.html. 
  29. ↑ Lawson, Lorraine (5 February 2025). "Vercel Rolls Out More Cost-Effective Infrastructure Model". The New Stack. https://thenewstack.io/vercel-rolls-out-more-cost-effective-infrastructure-model/. 

[ ⚑ ] 37°47′52″N 122°24′19″W / 37.7977°N 122.4053°W / 37.7977; -122.4053



Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Company:Vercel&oldid=4415132"