Vercel is a cloud platform for frontend developers to build, preview, and deploy high-performance websites and web applications. At its core, Vercel provides an integrated workflow for coding frontend frameworks like Next.js, React, and Vue.js, automating performance optimization and API handling. Websites deployed through Vercel leverage a global serverless architecture and edge network, enabling near-instant content delivery worldwide.

With over $300 in funding, Vercel was founded in 2015 by Guillermo Rauch, Naoyuki Kanezawa, and Tony Kovanen - open source innovators behind popular web libraries like Socket.IO. Their expertise in web development underlies Vercel's developer-friendly tools and services. Looking ahead, Vercel aims to become the complete platform for development teams by expanding into areas like web analytics and backend data storage. The company's focus on simplifying frontend workflows has attracted top engineering talent and customers like Airbnb.

While Vercel's growth depends on the continued adoption of frontend JavaScript frameworks, the company faces competition from rivals like Netlify. Vercel must evolve its platform to meet developers' changing needs as web technologies advance.