“The driving force behind Vistaprint’s future with 99designs is our passion to help small businesses,” said Robert Keane, founder and chief executive officer of both Cimpress and Vistaprint. “We know how critical great design is for entrepreneurs on their journey. 99designs and Vistaprint have shared values and vision to be a trusted partner to business owners and creators which lay the foundation for something bigger and more valuable than either of our teams could create alone.”
The combination of 99designs’ large network of talented freelance designers and Vistaprint’s more than 20 million customers will create a global platform which will make it easy for small businesses to access both professional design services and great marketing products in one place, and will provide freelance designers on the 99designs network the opportunity to work with Vistaprint customers.
Patrick Llewellyn, 99designs’ chief executive officer, said, “In a year when the whole world has had to work together online, 99designs’ mission of championing creativity to bring opportunities to people around the world has never been more relevant. We’ve been enabling remote creative connections for more than a decade and have seen firsthand how these fuel the success of small businesses and creators. Vistaprint’s belief and investment in both our team and technology is testament to the enormous potential in human-powered creativity, as well as the profound impact that great design has on a small business.”
With more than 20 million customers worldwide, Vistaprint offers an enormous selection of customizable design templates for marketing and promotional materials. Over the past few years, Vistaprint customers have increasingly leveraged its design services, accessing real-time graphic layout assistance. This program has become much loved by small business owners who turn to Vistaprint’s customer service team members for tasks that range from modifying an eye-catching banner to creating basic flyers or business cards. During the pandemic, customers have also flocked to Vistaprint’s “we design it for you” offering for the quick and easy layout of custom face masks. With the acquisition of 99designs, Vistaprint will expand to serve additional customer design needs.
“In order to become a more complete marketing partner to our customers we are augmenting our internal teams with 99designs’ wide-reaching community of talented freelance professional designers who are experts for more sophisticated design projects,” said Vistaprint Chief Marketing Officer Ricky Engelberg. “As businesses grow, the complexity and importance of their design needs also grow. To meet these needs as professionally and seamlessly as possible, we sought a partner that not only brings a scalable network of high-quality talent for design services, but who shares our vision for providing best-in-class solutions to business owners throughout their entrepreneurial journey.”
Patrick Llewellyn will report to Robert Keane and will continue to lead 99designs, and its large community of freelance designers will serve customers of both 99designs and Vistaprint. Vistaprint plans for significant post-acquisition investment to expand the 99designs team and to accelerate the pace of technology and product development for a large range of freelancer-powered design services to help small businesses.
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About Vistaprint
Vistaprint is the marketing partner to millions of small businesses around the world, empowering each one to live their dreams. For more than 20 years, we have helped small businesses look and feel credible through high-quality marketing products that include signage, logo apparel, promotional products, flyers and postcards, business cards, websites and digital marketing. With Vistaprint, small businesses are able to create and customize their marketing with easy-to-use digital tools and design-templates, or by receiving expert graphic design support. Our focus is on helping small businesses project a consistent and cohesive brand image that makes them look their best in-store, online, on-site and on-the-go.
About 99designs
99designs is the global creative platform that makes it easy for designers and clients to work together to create designs they love. Founded in 2008, 99designs has grown from a small, online forum into a worldwide community of talented designers that is now the go-to solution for businesses, agencies and individuals. 99designs has paid out more than US $300m to its creative community to date. With headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, 99designs also has offices in Oakland, California and Berlin, Germany.
About Cimpress
Cimpress plc (Nasdaq: CMPR) invests in and builds customer-focused, entrepreneurial, mass-customization businesses for the long term. Mass customization is a competitive strategy which seeks to produce goods and services to meet individual customer needs with near mass production efficiency. Cimpress businesses include BuildASign, Drukwerkdeal, Exaprint, National Pen, Pixartprinting, Printi, Vistaprint and WIRmachenDRUCK.
For more information please contact:
pr@99designs.com / PublicRelations@vistaprint.com
99designs Select gives clients on-demand access to a dedicated group of freelance creators who are curated around their brand’s specific day-to-day design needs; while 99designs Studio offers access to creative ideation and brainstorming on a global scale, as well as full-service management for larger scale projects and visual campaigns at a fixed price.
In-house creative teams around the world are facing new challenges. They are producing a wider variety of content across more channels than ever before – often with smaller budgets and leaner resources. This new suite of services from 99designs will help marketers and creative teams meet these challenges. Brands can build flexible, remote extensions of existing teams through Select, or tap into state-of-the-art ideation processes and fresh global perspectives through Studio.
“The creative industries have always been fueled by freelance talent: fresh perspectives and flexibility are integral to creative projects and teams around the world”, said 99designs CEO Patrick Llewellyn. “With the wider economy adapting rapidly to remote work on a global scale, more organizations are evolving and collaborating in ways they never thought possible.”
“Connecting with the right person, with the right skills, and at exactly the right moment – no matter where they are in the world – is really where the magic happens. We have facilitated more than a million creative connections and relationships on our platform over the past twelve years, and as the world becomes accustomed to new ways of working, 99designs Studio and Select will make that process even better for brands and marketers everywhere.”
Businesses can choose from two new services:
99designs Select
99designs Select offers clients access to a curated group of remote freelancers who are trained on the client’s brand guidelines, and are on call to execute day-to-day design tasks such as presentation decks, email banners, flyers, landing pages, white papers, ads, and more. For a one-off onboarding fee of US $2,500 99designs Select clients will receive the following:
● A hand-selected group of up to five freelance designers, pre-briefed and fully trained on your brand standards by the 99designs team
● Centralized access to these designers via 99designs’ intuitive design and collaboration tools
● US $500 credit towards your first creative project
● Platform training for internal teams
● Access to ongoing, on-demand support from a dedicated 99designs project manager for US $100/hour
● Ongoing work billed on a project-by-project basis (costs ranging from US $199-$2000 depending upon scope)
99designs Studio
Targeted at clients needing to get larger creative campaigns off the ground in as little as two weeks, 99designs Studio offers full-service ideation, refinement and delivery of larger visual projects for a fixed price. The typical 99designs Studio package costs US $4,999 and includes:
● End-to-end project delivery from experienced creative directors or brand strategists
● Unparalleled access to global ideation and creativity, as well as diverse international perspectives from the 99designs community
● Five initial creative concepts; with two concepts fully fleshed out (includes two rounds of feedback and amendments)
● The project cost covers all payments to designers as well as platform fees, NDAs and copyright transfer
About 99designs
99designs is the global creative platform that makes it easy for designers and clients to work together to create designs they love. Founded in 2008, 99designs has grown from a small, online forum into a worldwide community of talented designers that is now the go-to solution for businesses, agencies and individuals. 99designs has paid out more than US $300m to its creative community to date. With headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, 99designs also has offices in Oakland, California and Berlin, Germany.
For more information please contact pr@99designs.com
The accelerated growth in designer earnings is largely thanks to the company’s investment in its direct work product in the past 12 months. This newer way of working on 99designs allows clients to hire one designer for a specific project as an alternative to running a design contest where multiple designers are invited to submit concepts for consideration.
To date, 250,000 direct work projects between designers and clients have been completed on 99designs, the scope of which includes everything from quick design tweaks to in-depth specialist app design. Pricing for these projects can range anywhere between fifty and several thousand dollars depending on the type and scale of work required. In Q3 of this year, 35 percent of total designer earnings came from one-to-one projects. This is a significant increase on 2017 figures, and the upward trend has continued strongly in Q4.
This investment in direct work has also had a positive impact on agency sign-up rates for the 99designs Pro service, with the company onboarding 4x as many agencies per month than last year.
“The team has worked really hard to ensure 99designs evolves to better serve the needs of both our designers and our customers, and it’s gratifying to see this growth in direct work pay off for our community,” says 99designs CEO Patrick Llewellyn.
"To see a 25 percent increase in all time earnings on the platform in just over a year has been super satisfying, and it’s great to experience this kind of growth a decade into the company’s journey. We’re excited to continue advancing the direct work experience on 99designs and supporting our talented creative community in building strong, long-lasting working relationships.”
99designs is a global creative platform that makes it easy for designers and clients to work together to create designs they love. Founded in 2008, 99designs has grown from a small, online forum into a worldwide community of talented designers that is now the go-to solution for businesses, agencies and individuals.
Profitable since 2017, and backed by Accel (investors in Facebook, Dropbox, Etsy) 99designs generates over $60m USD in annual revenue. Designers from 192 countries are active on the platform, and at any given moment there are 10,000 designers online to tackle projects across 90 categories from logos and book covers to web design.
With headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, 99designs also has offices in Oakland, California and Berlin, Germany.
A 99designs, o maior mercado online de designer gráfico do mundo, anunciou que mudará sua matriz de volta a cidade de origem, Melbourne. O CEO, Patrick Lewellyn, também deixará os Estados Unidos para focar no crescimento internacional e preparar a empresa para uma possível entrada na Bolsa de Valores Australiana.
Leia aqui o comunicado completo.
Sobre a 99designs
A 99designs é o maior mercado online de design gráfico do mundo e conecta a comunidade global de designers freelancers com empreendedores e empresas de todos os tamanhos para suprir suas necessidades em design. Criada por designers para designers, a 99designs iniciou com um grupo de designers que competiam juntos para criar os melhores designs. Em 2008, a competição amigável se tornou o marketplace que atualmente é líder em design gráfico no planeta. A 99designs está transformando vidas de designers do mundo todo ao oferecê-los a oportunidade de ter acesso a clientes globalmente, a ter uma fonte de renda e a construir seus próprios portfólios. A 99designs tem escritórios nos EUA, Austrália e Alemanha.
A 99designs, maior mercado online de design gráfico do mundo, anunciou que mantém sua lucratividade alta em 2017 com os três trimestres consecutivos de lucro. Ao mesmo tempo, o marketplace de design chegou a marca de ter pago mais de 200 milhões de dólares a designers freelancers pela plataforma desde seu lançamento há 9 anos atrás.
Leia aqui o comunicado completo.
Sobre a 99designs
A 99designs é o maior mercado online de design gráfico do mundo e conecta a comunidade global de designers freelancers com empreendedores e empresas de todos os tamanhos para suprir suas necessidades em design. Criada por designers para designers, a 99designs iniciou com um grupo de designers que competiam juntos para criar os melhores designs. Em 2008, a competição amigável se tornou o marketplace que atualmente é líder em design gráfico no planeta. A 99designs está transformando vidas de designers do mundo todo ao oferecê-los a oportunidade de ter acesso a clientes globalmente, a ter uma fonte de renda e a construir seus próprios portfólios. A 99designs tem escritórios nos EUA, Austrália e Alemanha.
A líder global em criação de logotipos também inclui Rob Solomon no conselho da empresa, venture partner da Accel
San Francisco e Rio de Janeiro, 15 de abril, 2015 – 99designs, o maior marketplace para design gráfico do mundo, anunciou hoje o recebimento de 10 milhões de dólares como um aporte estratégico Série B. Ele foi emitido pela Recruit Strategic Partner, o braço de capital de risco da japonesa Recruit Holdings Co. Ltd., sediada em São Francisco. Accel, a principal investidora da 99designs durante a Série A de investimentos em 2011, também reinvestiu e adicionou o parceiro Rob Solomon ao conselho.
Segundo Patrick Llewellyn, CEO de 99designs, o investimento feito pela Recruit representa um movimento estratégico para apoiar a futura expansão internacional da empresa, especialmente no Japão e em outras regiões da Ásia, onde a Recruit é uma força dominante em serviços de informação e como marketplace de serviços. Além de ajudar na aceleração do crescimento mundial, a parceria com Recruit também abre portas a uma base de clientes mais ampla para serviços de design.
“Nós sabíamos que precisaríamos do parceiro certo para entrar no Japão e aumentar a nossa atuação no vasto mercado asiático”, explicou Llewellyn. “A Recruit acredita que crowdsourcing e marketplaces são peças importantes no futuro do trabalho e no encorajamento de pessoas a seguir seus sonhos e encontrar oportunidades. Isso é algo temos concretizado com sucesso para designers e pequenos negócios ao redor do mundo desde 2008, então o encaixe com a nossa companhia é perfeito”.
A Recruit Strategic Partners (“RSP”) é uma filial de propriedade absoluta da Recruit, uma holding baseada no Japão, pioneira em marketplaces empregatícios que se transformou na maior plataforma de encontro de serviços do mundo, presente em diversas verticais de mercado incluindo recursos humanos, viagens, bens imobiliários, casamento e restaurantes.
“Investir na 99designs condiz com o objetivo Recruit de se tornar a empresa número um em encontros de serviços (‘matching’) por múltiplos setores”, disse Akihiko Okamoto, Diretor Administrativo & Presidente da RSP. “Eles já ajudaram mais de 350 mil negócios a nascer e crescer, tendo pago mais de US$ 110 milhões de dólares para designers de todo o mundo. Por meio desse investimento, podemos colaborar com a divulgação da plataforma de design na Ásia e outros mercados mais.”
A participação da Accel nessa rodada reflete a sua convicção nas decisões estratégicas de expansão de 99designs. A chegada de Rob Solomon, venture partner da Accel, ao conselho administrativo também faz parte do empenho contínuo da companhia em construir uma forte marca global de internet voltada ao consumidor.
Antes da Accel, Solomon atuou como presidente e COO do Groupon. Lá, ele conduziu operações durante a fase de hiper-crescimento da empresa e a ajudou a entrar na história como uma das companhias com a maior velocidade de expansão. “Desde o investimento inicial da Accel na 99designs, há quatro anos atrás, eu assisti a marca penetrar novos mercados e passar de pioneira em design de logotipo movido por concursos para um próspero marketplace, no qual designers e empresas de pequeno e médio porte se conectam”, disse Solomon. “Como um membro do conselho, estou animado para ajudá-los a alcançar a próxima fase da sua ascensão”.
O site brasileiro da 99designs será positivamente impactado pela nova rodada de investimentos. Dentre as mudanças previstas, estão novos métodos de pagamento (como boleto bancário), eventos para empreendedores e certificação de qualidade dos designers.
Sobre Recruit Holdings
Fundada em 1960, a Recruit Holdings é líder em seviços de informação e recursos humanos no Japão. Por meio de uma ampla lista de serviços, a Recruit entrega novas descobertas e oportunidades para os usuários desfrutarem em diversas dimensões de suas vidas, como emprego, educação, housing, casamento, viagens, restaurantes, beleza, carros, hobbies e estilo de vida. A Recruit conta com mais de 300 mil funcionários e opera na Ásia e na América do Norte. A Recruit Strategic Partners, uma filial integral da Recruit no Japão, é uma companhia de capital de risco sediada no Vale do Silício que investe em inovação desenvolvida dentro dos Estados Unidos. Ela oferece conhecimento de mercado aos empreendedores e é uma parte íntegra do investimento corporativo mundial da Recruit. RSP também co-investe em firmas de capital de risco líderes nos Estados Unidos.
Sobre Accel Partners
Fundada em 1983 e com sede em Palo Alto, Califórnia, a Accel tem uma longa tradição de parcerias com notáveis empresários e times de administração em prol de construir negócios de nível mundial. Ela já colaborou com mais de 300 companhias tecnológicas bem-sucedidas, muitas das quais definiram suas categorias, incluindo AdMob, AirWatch, Atlassian, Braintree, Campaign Monitor, Cloudera, Couchbase, Dropbox, Etsy, Facebook, Fusion-IO, Groupon, Hootsuite, Kayak, Lookout, MoPub, Nimble Storage, Opower, OzForex, QlikTech, Qualtrics,Real Networks, Riverbed, Rovio, SeatGeek, Spotify, Squarespace, SuperCell,Trulia e VSCO.
Sobre 99designs
99designs, o maior marketplace do mundo em design de logotipos e design gráfico, auxiliou mais de 350 mil negócios a adquirir design de qualidade por um preço acessível, tendo pago mais de US$ 110 milhões de dólares a designers ao redor do globo. Ela foi pioneira em concursos de design baseados em crowdsourcing, nos quais o contratante recebe uma variedade de conceitos de design e escolhe o seu favorito. A 99designs também oferece projetos 1-para-1 (colaboração individual entre um contratante e um determinado designer), venda de templates de design prontos para usar e a conclusão de projetos pequenos dentro de uma hora, por meio do serviço chamado Tarefas. São mais de 950.000 designers de 192 países que formam esta competente e talentosa comunidade para ajudar a empresas de todo o mundo acrescerem com sucesso. A sede de 99designs fica em São Francisco e sua operação é feita na Austrália, Alemanha e Brasil.