Front-end application development platform startup Vercel Inc. announced today it has picked up $102 million in a new round of funding.

Bedrock Capital and CRV led the Series C round, with participation from existing investors Accel, Geodesic Capital, Greenoaks Capital and GV, plus new investors 8VC, Flex Capital, GGV, Latacora, Salesforce Ventures and Tiger Capital. The round bring Vercel’s total amount raised to $163 million.

Vercel’s platform is based on Next.js, an open-source React front-end development web framework that enables functionality such as server-side rendering and generating static websites for React-based web applications. One of its key features is a preview capability that makes it possible to inspect web applications and pages within a repository before they are deployed.

The company is making a case for separating the development of the front end of applications from the back end in order to accelerate software delivery. The point is that the back ends of applications rarely change, yet the user experience is constantly evolving. By separating front-end application development, it’s easier for developers to perform updates, the company argues.

Vercel also caters to a trend among developers to build the front-ends of web applications using frameworks based on JavaScript, just as React is. That trend is accelerating mainly due to Google LLC’s page ranking system, which includes how well a website or web app performs on its Google Web Vitals score. Front ends built in JavaScript generally load faster than legacy web application frameworks, so they usually have a higher Web Vitals score.

Vercel co-founder and Chief Executive Guillermo Rauch told SiliconANGLE that another reason the React framework has become so popular is because it has revolutionized the conceptual model of components, which are more straightforward, in web app development.

“Today, most developers think in terms of components, for instance a cart sidebar, product card or title,” Rauch said. “Due to React’s rise in popularity with developers, it also led to a massive rise in the number of companies wanting to hire React developers. This then fuels what new programmers want to learn, so it’s a large cycle.”

Of course Vercel’s Next.js isn’t the only such framework developers can use to build modern web apps. Another popular choice is Gatsby.js, a framework based on the open-source Angular project that’s also used for building speedy React applications.

Rauch said Next.js stands out from other React frameworks in that it’s the first “truly hybrid” framework that can be scaled up to millions of web pages without needing to switch to another framework as new requirements are added to those pages. “It grows with you and makes performance improvements just an install away,” he said.

Whatever the reasons, Next.js is definitely one of the most popular React frameworks. Vercel said that in the last six months its open-source contributors have grown to more than 1,600, while downloads on NPM have risen from 4.1 million to 6.2 million. Weekly deployments have quadrupled, and the number of home pages in the Alexa top 10,000 ranking that use Next.js has grown by 50%, the company said.

Some of Vercel’s best-known customers include Netflix Inc., ByteDance Ltd., which owns the TikTok platform, Airbnb Inc., Hashicorp Inc. and TripAdvisor Inc.

“Vercel is leading a market transition through which we are seeing the majority of value add in web and cloud application development being delivered at the front end, closest to the user, where true experiences are made and enjoyed,” Geoff Lewis, founder and managing partner at Bedrock, said in a statement.

News of today’s funding round comes a week after Vercel launched a major update to Next.js, with new innovations including faster starts and changes, the addition of real-time feedback, instantaneous live collaboration and image optimization enhancements.

The Next.js 11 release incorporates the Google-developed Conformance system, which provides solutions and rules to support optimal loading of web pages and apps. It also provides Next.js script prioritization and font enhancement automations, giving developers tools that can help them to improve their Web Vitals scores and boost their rankings in Google Search results.

Rauch said the company’s traction is thanks to the combination of its open-source community, the strength of its team and the strong support of its investors.

“We are very pleased to have been able to assemble this unmatched roster of contributors for this round, and are looking forward to applying these resources to hiring the best talent in the market and to further developing the platform to help developers create the next big thing, fast,” he said.

Analyst Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE that another reason for the traction Vercel has gained is that there simply aren’t enough application developers in the world to write all of the code that needs to be written. That means enterprises are always looking for ways to make the ones they do have more productive, he said.

“Frameworks like Vercel are key to getting applications production-ready faster, so it’s not surprising Vercel has landed a triple-digit funding round to build on Next.js,” Mueller said. “It’s good to see the company is furthering its go-to-market plans too. We’ll have to wait and see if Vercel is ready to execute, but the market is definitely ready for more developer-focused productivity frameworks and platforms.”

Vercel said it will use the funding to scale up its teams globally, accelerate its research and development efforts and boost adoption of its platform.

Image: Vercel