Who Owns Namecheap?

Richard Kirkendall founded Namecheap in 2000, initially running it from Los Angeles as a discount domain registrar when the market was dominated by Network Solutions-style pricing. The pitch was simple: honest pricing, free WHOIS privacy and no upsell traps, a positioning that built a loyal base among developers and small businesses.

The company relocated its headquarters to Phoenix, Arizona, and grew entirely on customer revenue, never taking venture capital. By the mid-2010s it had become one of the largest independent registrars, competing with GoDaddy by undercutting it on price and service reputation rather than marketing spend.

Namecheap built a public record on internet policy: it has opposed SOPA-style legislation, defended domain neutrality, sued over domain seizures it considered overreach, and in 2022 suspended service to customers promoting war propaganda tied to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A substantial portion of its workforce is based in Ukraine, a fact that took on operational and symbolic weight after the 2022 invasion.

Beyond registration the company expanded into shared hosting, VPS, dedicated servers, managed WordPress through its EasyWP line, SSL certificates, VPN and email. It also launched Spaceship, a companion low-cost registrar and hosting brand, and acquired smaller assets including Namebase and the Stencil design tool.

Registrations passed milestones steadily, reaching well past 10 million domains under management and, by the mid-2020s, more than 18 million. Revenue grew from $291 million in 2022 to $335.6 million in 2023 and $398 million in 2024, an 18 percent annual jump that attracted private equity attention.

In September 2025 CVC Capital Partners agreed to acquire a majority stake at a roughly $1.5 billion valuation, the largest deal in the registrar sector since GoDaddy's own private equity era. Kirkendall publicly welcomed the partnership while staying on as CEO.

A defining moment came in late 2011 with the Move Your Domain Day campaign. After GoDaddy publicly supported the proposed SOPA legislation, Namecheap positioned itself as the beneficiary of the resulting boycott, offering discounted transfers and drawing tens of thousands of domains in days. The episode cemented its combative identity and set a template for industry-position marketing it has used since.

The company expanded methodically beyond registration: hosting products, SSL through partnerships and its own lines, PremiumDNS, VPN and business apps, plus Spaceship, launched in 2020 as a modernized platform for domains and digital identity. It built a substantial engineering operation in Ukraine, which continued operating through the 2022 invasion.

It has also taken positions that generated attention outside the industry, including decisions on service provision in politically charged cases. Those stances, marketed as principle, have drawn both loyalty and criticism, a recurring pattern for a company that built its identity on opposing domain industry orthodoxy.