ClickUp was founded in 2017 by Zeb Evans and Alex Yurkowski in San Diego, California. Evans, a serial entrepreneur, built the initial version of ClickUp as an internal tool for his own team after becoming frustrated with the fragmentation of workplace productivity tools. The founders recognized that most teams used multiple separate tools (Asana for tasks, Slack for communication, Google Docs for documents, etc.) and saw an opportunity to consolidate these into a single platform.
ClickUp launched publicly in 2017 and grew rapidly through word-of-mouth and aggressive marketing. The company raised $35 million in Series A funding in June 2020, followed by $100 million in Series B funding in December 2020, reaching unicorn status with a valuation over $1 billion.
In October 2021, ClickUp raised $400 million in Series C funding at a $4 billion valuation, led by Tiger Global Management. The company used this funding to accelerate product development, expand internationally, and invest heavily in marketing.
ClickUp expanded internationally, opening offices in Dublin, Ireland, and Sydney, Australia in 2021. The company acquired Slapdash, a productivity search tool, in 2022 to enhance its platform's search capabilities.
ClickUp introduced AI-powered features with ClickUp AI in 2023, later rebranded as ClickUp Brain in early 2024. ClickUp Brain integrates AI assistance across the platform, helping users write content, summarize documents, generate task descriptions, and automate workflows.
In 2023, ClickUp underwent a leadership transition when Zeb Evans stepped back from the CEO role due to health reasons. The company appointed Manav Mital as interim CEO while Evans remained involved in the company.