Evernote
Acquired19 known investors
Evernote is a note-taking and productivity platform that helps individuals and teams capture, organize, and access information across devices. The service includes AI-powered features for transcription and search, task management, and collaborative editing for personal and professional use.
Also known as Evernote Corporation · Yinxiang Biji · 印象笔记
Investors · 19
Also in the syndicate · 8
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Evernote is a note-taking and task-management application developed by Evernote Corporation and, since its 2022 acquisition, by Bending Spoons. Users create textual notes that can embed photos, audio recordings and saved web content; notes are stored in virtual "notebooks" that can be arranged hierarchically, tagged, annotated, edited, searched and exported. The service supports image capture from device cameras, voice notes, optical character recognition of text appearing in captured images, handwriting recognition on touch and tablet screens, note entry by email, and automatic geolocation tagging where supported hardware is available. Notes sync automatically with a master copy on Evernote's servers, allowing access and editing across machines and operating systems, with offline changes saved as drafts until a connection is re-established.
The current product is positioned around capture, organization, recall, and sharing. Marketed features include templates, notebooks and spaces, search, tasks with dates and reminders, an Evernote Calendar with external Google and Microsoft calendar connections, a browser Web Clipper, real-time collaborative editing with comments and task assignment, and a set of AI features. Version 11 of the product is described as introducing new AI capabilities; the plan comparison page lists an AI Assistant chat, semantic search, AI Transcribe for meeting recording, summaries and transcripts, AI Edit for writing, summarizing, tidying and translating, mobile-only AI Cleanup, and MCP connectivity so notes can be used from Claude, ChatGPT and other MCP-compatible tools. Integrations cover Google (Gmail, Drive, Calendar), Microsoft Outlook email and calendar, and Slack.
Clients are available for Android, iOS, macOS, Microsoft Windows and the web, plus portable versions for flash drives and U3 drives. There are no officially supported native BSD or Linux clients, though the company provides an API used by external Linux clients, and feature support varies by platform. Companion apps have included Scannable for iOS document scanning and Skitch, a screenshot annotation and sharing tool acquired from Plasq in 2011, discontinued on Windows, Windows Touch, iOS and Android in January 2016 but continued on Mac.
Founding story
Evernote was founded in 2007 by Russian entrepreneur Stepan Pachikov. Phil Libin is described as co-founder and CEO of Evernote, under whose leadership the company grew from marketing software into a billion-dollar startup that raised nearly $300 million; Libin later founded the product studio All Turtles and the video-call app mmhmm, and served as Managing Director of General Catalyst.
Business model
Freemium software-as-a-service. A free tier is offered alongside paid subscription plans, with free trials of paid plans generally lasting seven days and a 14-day free trial for the Enterprise plan. Subscriptions are billed monthly or yearly by credit card or PayPal, or through iTunes and Google Play when purchased in-app, and eligible college students can receive 40% off a one-year Starter subscription.
Subscription tiers differentiated by usage limits and features. As presented on the plan comparison page, Free allows 50 notes, 1 notebook, 5 spaces, 20 tags, sync to 1 device, 1GB storage, 1 external calendar and 200 attachments; Starter allows 1,000 notes, 20 notebooks, 10 spaces, 100 tags, 3 devices, 5GB storage, 5 external calendars and 1,000 attachments; Advanced offers unlimited notes, notebooks, spaces, tags, device sync, storage and attachments subject to safeguard limits; and Enterprise is custom, adding business data ownership, centralized account administration and user management, user activity logs, single sign-on, a dedicated customer success manager and priority support. Wikipedia's February 2025 description references Personal, Professional and Teams paid tiers with a 20 GB monthly upload limit on Professional and enterprise services on request.
Traction
Evernote's site reports 248 million registered users, 5 billion notes created and 2 million notes created daily, along with review ratings of 4.4 from more than 2,100 G2 reviews, more than 8,200 Capterra reviews and more than 73,000 App Store reviews. Historically, figures released in December 2011 put the user base at 20 million across Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, web browsers, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7, with reports at the time of roughly 40,000 new users per day and a more than doubling of the user base year over year.
Latest developments
Evernote v11 has been released with new AI features, including an AI assistant, semantic search, AI transcription of meetings, AI editing and translation, mobile AI cleanup, and the ability to connect notes to Claude, ChatGPT and other MCP-compatible AI tools. The plan lineup on the website is Free, Starter, Advanced and Enterprise.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
A long-established note-taking service that gained popularity for synchronizing notes across multiple devices and platforms. Contemporary reporting from 2012 described rapid consumer growth, and Evernote was named company of the year by Inc Magazine. The company operated a separate China service, Yinxiang Biji, launched in 2012, which became a fully autonomous company in June 2018.
Cross-platform capture in multiple formats (typed notes, images with OCR, audio, handwriting, emailed content and clipped web pages) unified in a searchable, tagged notebook structure that syncs automatically across devices, with offline access. More recent differentiation is positioned around integrated tasks and calendar alongside notes, and AI features including semantic search, transcription and MCP-based access to notes from third-party AI assistants.
Technology
Cloud-synchronized note storage with a master copy on Evernote servers and clients across Windows, macOS, Android, iOS and web. Supporting technologies include optical character recognition of text in captured images, handwriting recognition, geolocation tagging, email-to-note ingestion, browser-based web clipping, two-factor authentication and in-note encryption on Mac and Windows. AI capabilities include an assistant chat, semantic search over note content, meeting recording with transcription and summarization, generative note editing and translation, and Model Context Protocol connectivity for external AI tools.
Go-to-market
Self-serve acquisition through a free plan and free trials, with downloads distributed via the company website, the Apple App Store, Google Play, and browser extension stores for Chrome, Firefox and Safari. Upgrades are handled in-product through account settings, while Enterprise adoption runs through a sales contact and a trial page. The company publishes use-case and SEO-oriented educational content targeting specific professional segments.
Individual consumers using the product for personal organization, as well as teams and businesses. Evernote Business was launched in 2012 for teams to share notes and collaborate within an organization, and current plans include collaboration and Enterprise administration features. Evernote's own content also markets the product to startup founders and other professional roles.
Geography
Reporting in 2012 associates the company with San Francisco. Evernote launched a China-based service, Yinxiang Biji, in 2012, which transitioned into a fully autonomous company in June 2018. Since November 2022 the product has been owned by Italian company Bending Spoons. Clients are distributed globally through app stores and the web, and the site is offered in multiple languages.
History
Founded in 2007, the company released the first public version of the Evernote web application on June 24, 2008. In October 2010 it raised $20 million led by Sequoia Capital with DoCoMo Capital, Troika Dialog and Morgenthaler Ventures. It acquired the screenshot tool Skitch from Plasq in August 2011. By April 2012 CrunchBase data cited by press showed $95.5 million raised through a $50 million Series D in July 2011, and Evernote was reported to be raising a $50-100 million Series E at a valuation above $1 billion, with Meritech Capital Partners believed to be leading. Also in 2012 the company launched Evernote Business and the China-based Yinxiang Biji service, the latter becoming autonomous in June 2018. Skitch was discontinued on several platforms in January 2016. Evernote was acquired by Bending Spoons in November 2022.
Risks & controversies
The 2012 report of a Series E round noted the deal was unsigned and unapproved by the board at the time, with terms subject to change; the sources provided do not confirm the round's completion. Wikipedia's article notes stable client releases dated to March 2022 and flags sections as incomplete or reliant on primary sources, and the plan comparison page notes that "unlimited" allowances are subject to safeguard limits applied to prevent abuse.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Founder mafia
The Evernote mafia →6 people who came through Evernote went on to found or lead other companies.
Competitors · 6
by search overlap
Companies competing with Evernote for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
Timeline · 9
launches, deals, and filingsVersion 11 adds AI capabilities including an AI assistant, semantic search, AI transcription, AI editing and MCP connectivity.
Italian technology company Bending Spoons acquired Evernote and is listed as the product's developer.
Evernote discontinued Skitch on those platforms while continuing to offer Skitch for Mac.
Evernote launched its China-based service under the name Yinxiang Biji (印象笔记).
A version of the service for teams enabling note sharing and collaboration within an organization.
Skitch, a screenshot editing and sharing utility originally developed by Plasq, was acquired by Evernote.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
Bending Spoons IPO Raises $1.68B: Evernote and Vimeo Owner Plans 1,000 More Acquisitionstechtimes.com · Jul 2026▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Evernoteevernote.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Evernote do?
- Note-taking and task-management app, founded 2007 and acquired by Bending Spoons in 2022, now marketed as a "second brain."
- Who are Evernote's investors?
- Evernote's investors include Canvas Ventures, Coatue Management, Eastlink Capital Partners, Felicis Ventures, Glynn Capital Management, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), NewView Capital, Open Field Capital and 3 more.