Jerusalem-based visual content creation app development company Lightricks has confirmed a $130 million Series D round, comprised of $100 million primary funding and $30 million secondary funding. This places the company’s current valuation at $1.8 billion and brings its total funding to $335 million.
In July 2019, a $135 million Series C funding round saw Lightricks valued at $1 billion, so the new round represents an 80% increase in value in just over two years. It’s a rapid rise for a company founded just eight years ago.
The new D round was championed by Insight Partners and Hanaco Venture Capital in New York, while Migdal Insurance, Altshuler Shaham and Shavit Capital invested in Lightricks for the first time. Investors who had participated in earlier rounds showed strong confidence as well, with Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Claltech, Harel Insurance and Finance, and Greycroft all returning to increase their stakes.
Lightricks has created a diverse suite of creativity apps with image and video tools aimed at social media users such as Facetune2, Facetune Video and Filtertune. Their expansive ecosystem includes products designed for more general usage, including Boosted, Beatleap, Photoleap, Videoleap, Motionleap, Artleap and Lightleap.
Combined, these apps now have 547 million installs and 29 million active monthly users, covering a significant proportion of content creators.
Lightricks has also seen considerable growth during the pandemic, as more people have begun to take the potential opportunity of being a professional content creator seriously. The total number of installs grew by 42% in the past 12 months. Investors will be particularly encouraged by the paid subscriber growth by 24% to 5.1 million in the last year. This forms the bedrock of Lightricks’s $200 million revenue in 2021 so far.
The startup’s founders and investors expect this market to continue to grow at a rapid rate. Currently, people export 78 million visuals from Lightricks apps per month. The lion’s share of these assets are used as social media posts, and output has been constantly increasing.
Pasha Romaovski of Hanaco Venture Capital sums up their ambitions as it relates to wider trends. “The creator economy has changed the way we, as a society, experience social networks,” he said. “Audiences constantly consume information through the different content channels daily.”
“Lightricks’ platform enables creators to have a broader, more professional and higher-quality set of tools to optimize content,” Romaovski continued. “At a time when we are seeing content creators monetize content on social media at new levels, it is clear that Lightricks’ platform has the ability to create a one stop shop that will be meaningful to its users.”
Indeed, this is Lightricks Co-founder and CEO Zeev Farbman’s strategic vision for the company. “We’re here to give creators the tools, services and connections to help them produce and publish their content more smoothly, building out a solid creator economy that lets them earn a respectable income,” he told Entrepreneur some three months ago.
Today Lightricks is on pace to see 40% revenue growth in 2021 compared to 2020. The D round funding will also enable them to make crucial acquisitions to push them further ahead. This will be a mix of smaller purchases and larger ones, according to Farbman,
Although the company’s headquarters are located in Jerusalem at the moment, they have global ambitions with employee growth expected in London, Shenzhen and Haifa. They currently have 460 employees and are aiming to build to 1000 employees by the end of 2023.
If Lightricks continues on this success trajectory, Farbman and his executive team will create a critical mass of jobs in the creative technology sector and solidify its status as an integral part of a booming industry.