Hi! My name is Marieke van de Rakt, and I am an entrepreneur and investor. Until 2021, I was the CEO and co-owner of Yoast, a Tech startup from the Netherlands. Yoast is most famous for the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress, which helps your site rank higher in Google. In 2021, we sold Yoast to Newfold Digital.

I am happily married to Joost de Valk, the founder of Yoast, and we have four amazing children together. Joost and I started Emilia Capital in 2021 and have invested in several (tech) startups, many of which are in the WordPress ecosystem. We are always looking for opportunities to invest in female founders!

Before working at Yoast, I was a teacher and a researcher. I was educated as a sociologist, obtained a Ph.D. in social sciences, and did a lot of teaching and development of educational material. At Yoast, I founded Yoast Academy, the online courses platform that teaches thousands of students all about SEO.

I have been a true feminist since my daughter was born in 2009. Within Yoast, I have done my very best to put the matter of gender equality on the agenda. When I became CEO in 2019, I started The Empowerwoment project at Yoast. Next to that, I did several internal talks and external ones (WordCamp Nijmegen and WordCamp Torino) about gender inequality and how to solve it. Also, together with team Yoast, I created a digital story on that topic.

Next to an entrepreneur, an investor, and a feminist, I am a mother. I spend most of my free time with my husband, three wonderful sons, and a kick-ass daughter. I enjoy reading, running, dancing, and watching many television series.