Joost de Valk: How the Yoast Founder Built His Fortune and What He Does Now
Joost de Valk turned 44 this year, and his journey from an early web blogger to the founder of one of WordPress’s best-known SEO companies has made him a notable figure in the digital industry. Born on 16 February 1982 in the Netherlands, he started blogging in 2004 and built css3.info into one of the early go-to resources for web standards.
By 2010, he had founded Yoast, the company behind the SEO plugin that eventually powered more than 9 million WordPress sites. He spent nearly nine years as CEO before handing the role to his wife so he could focus on product.
In August 2021, they sold Yoast to Newfold Digital. After a short stint as Head of WordPress Strategy and a six-month return as interim CTO, he left the company in April 2023.
Today, de Valk runs investments through Emilia Capital with Marieke, sits on the boards of Patchstack and Atarim, and leads AI and growth work at Your.Online after Progress Planner joined the group in June 2026.
Public estimates put his net worth in the low-to-mid tens of millions of euros from the Yoast exit and subsequent holdings, although exact figures remain private.
Rather than staying in the spotlight, the couple keeps a deliberate low profile while backing digital and WordPress-related startups. His post-Yoast work shows that the business story did not end with the sale of the company; de Valk has continued moving deeper into investments, technology and AI.
