99designs Acquires 12designer
99designs recently acquired 12designer, the Berlin-based European design marketplace and the second largest in Europe after 99designs.
The company expects that this acquisition will be able to give them the momentum they need to put in motion its aggressive regional plans and conquer a larger share of the European market. The company has stated that Germany and the other European countries account for around 15% of the 155,000 graphic design contests that the company held to date and that acquiring 12designer will allow them to better meet the needs of European customers.
“We’re very excited to welcome 12designer Founder and CEO Eva Missling and her talented team into the 99designs family. We believe their deep regional design contest marketplace expertise and multi-lingual capabilities will prove instrumental in accelerating our delivery of truly localized world-class design services to European businesses and designers,” stated Patrick Llewellyn, 99designs CEO.
The former 12designer CEO Eva Missling was named 99designs new general manager in Europe. Her task will be to optimize 99designs services for the European market, accelerate the growth over Germany and all over Europe, and to build a 99designs team in Berlin.
“The combination of 99designs global reach and resources, 12designers’ regional experience, and the enormous multilingual talent pool here in Berlin will be a win for Europe’s small business owners and designs alike,” said Eva Missling.
12designer has a community of over 22,000 designers from all over Europe, has held over 8,000 design contests and is expected to continue to operate as independent marketplace in the near future.
On the other hand, the design marketplace giant 99designs has over 175,000 registered designers from more than 190 countries and currently pays to designers around $1.5 M every month. Since its inception in 2010, the 99designs community has uploaded over 15.9 million designs. A new design is uploaded every five seconds.
This acquisition is the first after the $35 million Series A investment led by Accel Partners awarded to 99designs last year. The company has also recently invested $460,000 in Tweaky, a marketplace where small things can be fixed for a fee.