Company Domains
Upgrade.com Was Registered in 1994. Upgrade Didn't Exist Until 2014.
upgrade.com is 20 years older than the company that uses it, and the Internet Archive has the site on record from 1998.
Key takeaways
- upgrade.com was first registered on 18 October 1994 and its registration runs until 17 October 2035.
- Upgrade was founded in 2014, 20 years after the domain was registered.
- The Internet Archive’s earliest saved copy of the site is from 2 December 1998.
- Crunchbase lists about $752M of total equity funding, which is money raised, not valuation.
The registry has upgrade.com created on 18 October 1994. Upgrade did not exist until 2014. Its founders are Renaud Laplanche. The domain is 20 years older than the company that now uses it.
Crunchbase lists Upgrade’s total equity funding at about $752M. That is money raised, not valuation, and the figure is rounded. That puts Upgrade at number 415 of the 1,856 companies in the list used for this series.
The company at a glance
| Founded | 2014 |
| Founders | Renaud Laplanche |
| Headquarters | San Francisco |
| Total equity funding | $752M raised, not valuation (Crunchbase, rounded) |
The domain at a glance
| Extension | .com |
| Name length | seven letters |
| First registered | 18 October 1994 |
| Age | 32 years |
| Registered until | 17 October 2035 |
| First archived | 2 December 1998 (Internet Archive) |
| Registrar | GoDaddy.com, LLC |
| Locked | Yes, against transfer |
| DNS | Amazon Route 53 |
| Google Workspace | |
| Other extensions | upgrade.co.uk loads its own site; upgrade.io loads its own site; upgrade.ai loads its own site; upgrade.net loads its own site; upgrade.org loads its own site |
The registry record
The registry gives upgrade.com a creation date of 18 October 1994 and a registration that runs until 17 October 2035. The registrar is GoDaddy.com, LLC, and the domain carries registry locks against transfer.
The current registration of upgrade.com is 32 years old. 1,395 of the 1,912 companies in the Crunchbase list use a .com address.
A registry creation date is the start of the current registration, not a sale date, and the record does not name earlier holders.
The site before the company
The Internet Archive’s earliest saved copy of upgrade.com is from 2 December 1998 and is titled “SOFTBANK Services Group”. It holds copies from 48 separate months before Upgrade was founded. It has no copy for 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 or 2016. In total it holds copies from 157 separate months.
An archived page title shows what a site called itself, not who ran it.
The company and the name
upgrade.co.uk, upgrade.io, upgrade.ai, upgrade.net and upgrade.org each load their own sites, and who runs them has not been checked. The DNS is hosted on Amazon Route 53 and email runs on Google Workspace.
The company behind the name
Upgrade is headquartered in San Francisco.
The price question
What Upgrade paid for upgrade.com is not on any verified public record, so no price is given.
Live GoDaddy auction
Amazon picks for today
Sources
Registry data checked 3 November 2026. Funding is from the Crunchbase Unicorn Board, which rounds its figures.
Domain links go via an affiliate network and Amazon links carry our Associates tag, so we may earn a commission at no cost to you. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Bids and prices change quickly; check the listing for the current figure.
Frequently asked questions
When was upgrade.com registered?
upgrade.com was first registered on 18 October 1994, according to the .com registry record. The registration runs until 17 October 2035.
How much did Upgrade pay for upgrade.com?
No verified public record was found of what Upgrade paid for upgrade.com, so no price is given.
Who founded Upgrade?
Upgrade was founded in 2014 by Renaud Laplanche.
