The story
ON24 was founded in 1998 by Csaba Fikker, Bill Bales and Nina Chen as NewsDirect Inc., to become a distribution center for Internet-based video press releases. After an initial investment the co-founders and board of Directors hired Sharat Sharan as a CEO. In 1999, with Sharat Sharan as CEO the company rebranded to be known as ON24 and focused on being an online financial news streaming media source. Following the dot com-bust in 2001, the company started concentrating solely on its webcasting platform. In August 2002, ON24 discontinued its news operation.
In 2006, ON24 began its global expansion with presence in the US, the UK, Australia, Singapore and Spain. In 2008, the company launched its virtual event platform, ON24 Virtual Show, expanding the company's focus to include trade shows, conferences, and events.
The company completed an initial public offering in February 2021 of 9,845,069 shares of common stock at $50.00 per share, generating gross proceeds of approximately $492.3 million.
Between June 2023 and January 2024, ON24 launched its AI-powered service, Analytics and Content Engine (ACE)
From Wikipedia’s article on ON24, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6