SEMRush announced on Monday that it plans to IPO under the ticker SEMR and will raise $100 million.

According to its S-1 statement, SEMRush has $144.2 million in annual revenue with over 67,000 paying customers.

Rand Fishkin said recently that SEMRush has gone from 3rd or 4th place in SEO software to a clear number 1 in revenue & growth rate over the last 6 years.

He estimates that Ahrefs is second place at between $55-75 million in revenues, with Moz in at third place (~$45M) at a slower growth rate (after leading for years prior).

Both are Ahrefs and SEMRush are great tools that I’ve been using and have been recommending for a long time.

It’s been interesting to see how all of these SEO tools have evolved over the years. I still remember the time when Moz looked very dominant with no real competition.

For a time, Infusionsoft/Keap was a clear leader as well but in CRM with an endorsing $54 million dollar investment from Goldman Sachs during their peak in 2013, whereas now ActiveCampaign has become the popular option.

This just goes to show you that simply being market leader in a growing field is not enough and doesn’t determine anything. Even in a space like a CRM where switching costs are higher compared to an SEO tool.