Zola (wedding company)

Zola was founded in 2013 by Shan-Lyn MaShan-Lyn MaShan-Lyn Ma is co-founder and co-CEO of Zola, a U.S. online wedding planning and registry platform, and previously worked in product and management roles at Yahoo, Gilt Groupe and Chloe + Isabel.Open the full entry and Nobu Nakaguchi, who had attended many weddings that year and were frustrated by the registry experience. Drawing on their backgrounds in technology, product design and merchandising, they teamed up with Gilt Groupe founder Kevin Ryan to build a wedding company for couples and their guests.⁠[1]

The company began as a wedding registry website, with Kevin Ryan as its first and only investor at launch.⁠[2]

In April 2017 Zola launched a free suite of wedding planning tools, including wedding websites, a customizable checklist and a guest-list manager.⁠[3]

By June 2017 Zola had raised $40 million from venture firms including Lightspeed Venture PartnersLightspeed Venture PartnersLightspeed Venture Partners backs companies from seed through late-stage financing. Its website distinguishes Lightspeed Management Company (LSVP) from Lightspeed India Partners (LSIP): the two are separately operated investment advisers, with the U.S., European, and Israeli offices belonging to LSVP and the India and Southeast Asia offices belonging to LSIP.Open the full entry, Canvas Ventures and Thrive CapitalThrive CapitalThrive Capital is an investment firm led by chief executive Joshua Kushner that builds and invests in internet, software and technology-enabled companies, with investments including Cursor and Chai Discovery. Kushner is also chief executive of Thrive Holdings, a long-term holding company.Open the full entry, had more than 300,000 registered U.S. users, and employed 65 people in New York City.⁠[4]

On May 3, 2018, Zola announced a $100 million Series D led by ComcastComcastComcast Corporation is an American media and technology company headquartered in Philadelphia. It began in 1963 when Ralph J. Roberts bought a small cable television operator in Tupelo, Mississippi, and its businesses include Xfinity, Comcast Business, NBCUniversal, Sky, and Peacock. The company completed the spin-off of Versant Media in January 2026 and in June of that year announced plans to separate NBCUniversal and Sky into an independent public company, expected to take about a year.Open the full entry Ventures, with NBCUniversal and Goldman SachsGoldman SachsGoldman Sachs is an American financial services group headquartered in New York whose businesses include investment banking, securities trading, asset management, and wealth management. It traces its origins to the commercial paper business Marcus Goldman founded in 1869; it listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1999 under the ticker GS and became a bank holding company in 2008. David Solomon serves as chairman and chief executive officer.Open the full entry Investment Partners joining as new investors; the round took Zola’s total funding above $140 million.⁠[3]

Existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Canvas Ventures, Thrive Capital, BBG Ventures and Female Founders FundFounders FundFounders Fund is a venture capital firm founded in San Francisco in 2005 by Peter Thiel and his former PayPal colleagues Ken Howery and Luke Nosek. Run by partners who were entrepreneurs themselves, it argues that founders should keep more control and is known for betting on difficult technology projects in areas such as space, defense, and artificial intelligence. It was Palantir’s first institutional investor, has invested in SpaceX many times since 2008, and its other notable investments include Facebook, Airbnb, Stripe, and Anduril; as of March 2026 it had raised nine early-stage funds and four growth funds.Open the full entry participated; other new investors included Balyasny Asset Management, Founders Circle, GingerBread Capital and Jerry YangJerry YangJerry Yang is a Yahoo co-founder and former CEO and the founding partner of AME Cloud Ventures. He helped develop Yahoo’s relationships with Yahoo Japan and Alibaba and served as chair of Stanford University’s Board of Trustees.Open the full entry of AME Cloud Ventures.⁠[3][5]

The company said it had doubled its headcount over the previous year and added more than 300 brands to its registry store, and that the new funds would go to cross-device product development and its proprietary platform technology.⁠[3]

As of January 2020 Zola offered about 80,000 products and more than 3,000 paper designs on its website, had been used by more than one million couples, and employed more than 200 people; it did not disclose its valuation. Its business had expanded from registries into planning services such as wedding websites, guest lists and invitations.⁠[2]

In May 2022 Zola was hit by a cybersecurity attack that threatened customers’ funds; the company said all funds were restored.⁠[6]

In June 2022 Rachel Jarrett, previously president and chief operating officer, became co-CEO alongside Shan-Lyn Ma; co-founder Nobu Nakaguchi served as chief design officer.⁠[6]

On TechCrunchTechCrunchTechCrunch is an American technology news outlet founded in 2005 by Michael Arrington and Keith Teare and headquartered in San Francisco; it mainly covers technology companies, startups, and venture capital, and hosts events such as TechCrunch Disrupt. Its ownership passed successively through AOL, Verizon, and Yahoo, and in 2025 Regent announced its acquisition.Open the full entry’s Found podcast in February 2024, Ma described Zola’s products as including its wedding registry, wedding websites linked to the guest list, invitations and other paper goods, a venue and vendor marketplace, a checklist that adapts to different cultural traditions, the baby registry Zola Baby, and an AI tool in its mobile app that drafts thank-you notes.⁠[7]

She also said that during the pandemic Zola added a postponement message for wedding websites, a virtual weddings feature and free change-the-date cards.⁠[7]

In October 2026 Zola entered a definitive agreement to be acquired by the wedding technology platform The Knot Worldwide for an undisclosed amount. The companies said they would combine strengths in planning, local vendor discovery, personalization, registry and e-commerce, and that Zola and The Knot would continue as separate consumer brands.⁠[8][9]

Zola is to join The Knot Worldwide’s portfolio of 14 global brands. The deal is subject to customary closing conditions, including any required regulatory clearances; J.P. Morgan Securities LLC advised The Knot Worldwide and Evercore advised Zola, with Gunderson Dettmer acting as Zola’s legal counsel.⁠[9][8]

Zola: Official website: https://www.zola.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[10]

X: Public account: https://x.com/zola (opens in a new window).⁠[10]