HomeAcquisitionsUS-based 99designs acquires German design marketplace 12designer

US-based 99designs acquires German design marketplace 12designer

99designs, a leading online graphic design marketplace which is headquartered in San Francisco, today announced it has acquired the Berlin-based startup 12designer, a leading creative design marketplace in Germany and the second largest in Europe after 99designs (Update – March 2023: The startup seems to be no longer in business under this website and we therefore deactivated the link).

The financial terms have not yet been disclosed, however the acquisition is 99designs’ first. It signals the company’s ongoing focus on international expansion via localization following its $35 million Series A investment round, which was led by Accel Partners in 2011.

Germany is 99design’s number one non-English-speaking market, its fifth largest overall and one of its fastest growing. Despite minimal marketing in Germany and other European countries, European small businesses and startups have accounted for approximately 15% of the 155,000 graphic design contests held on 99designs’ English-language site to date.

99designs CEO Patrick Llewellyn said: “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 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. This acquisition enables us to build significantly on our existing momentum and resources in Europe and gives us an ideally situated base in Berlin. As the tech startup and design hub of Europe, there is no better place from which to implement our aggressive regional growth plans.”

99designs also announced that 12designer’s CEO Eva Missling will be the new General Manager of Europe. She will be tasked with optimizing localization of 99designs services for European markets, accelerating growth in Germany and across Europe, and building a 99designs team in Berlin. She will also continue to oversee 12designer, which boasts a community of more than 20,000 designers interacting with customers in German, French, Spanish, Italian and English. 12designer, which was founded in 2009, will continue to operate as a stand-alone site in the near future.

Check out the video below to find out how 12designers (and 99designs) works:

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Thomas Ohr
Thomas Ohr
Thomas Ohr is the "Editor in Chief" of EU-Startups.com and started the blog in October 2010. He is excited about Europe's future, passionate about new business ideas and lives in Barcelona (Spain).
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