Shutterstock, a leading global creative platform that offers creative content for transformative brands, digital media and marketing companies, announced that it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Envato Pty Ltd., a leader in digital creative assets and templates. Envato’s flagship product Elements is an innovative subscription offering unlimited downloads of various assets, templates, etc.
Launched in 2006 and based in Australia with a presence in Mexico and New Zealand, Envato enables millions of people worldwide to buy and sell creative assets, use smart design templates, and learn creative skills. Through its combination of an extensive breadth of asset types, a deep library, a compelling value proposition and quality artistry, Envato helps creatives get projects done faster and more effectively.
This deal will complement Shutterstock’s existing offering with Envato Elements, an unlimited multi-asset subscription. And it will expand Shutterstock’s reach within faster-growing audiences like freelancers, hobbyists, small businesses, and agencies. Plus it adds 650k subscribers, more than doubling Shutterstock’s subscriber base to 1.15 million. The deal also supports Shutterstock’s content library with 10 million images, 6 million videos, 1 million audio clips, 0.5 million templates, and 0.2 million graphics & fonts.
It also further diversifies Shutterstock into new content types including code and web themes, product mock-ups, fonts and templates (i.e. Slides, Powerpoint, Keynote, WordPress, video, designs for social posts, gaming, podcasts, and print-on-demand).
Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Citizens will provide financing for the deal. CapM Advisors and White & Case acted as Shutterstock’s financial and legal advisors, respectively. Drake Star Partners, Goodwin Procter, and King & Wood Mallesons acted as Envato’s financial and legal advisors, respectively.
KEY QUOTES:
“We’re thrilled about this transaction and looking forward to welcoming the Envato team to Shutterstock. Envato is perfectly positioned to serve a growing customer need for an unlimited multi-asset subscription to a library of creative content, with an emphasis on videos, audio, graphics, fonts and templates. By extending our reach to faster-growing audiences and into additional content types, this acquisition will help Shutterstock fulfill its mission of connecting customers to the content they need, wherever they are, so they can create, build, and share their next big idea.”
- Shutterstock CEO Paul Hennessy
“Since its humble beginnings in a Sydney garage, Envato has generated more than $1.3 billion in earnings for its author community and scaled to 650k subscribers. I feel an immense sense of pride in the team for achieving this global scale as an independent business. As we enter this next chapter, we remain laser focused on empowering the creative community to thrive and excited to achieve this shared goal with Shutterstock.”
- Envato CEO Hichame Assi
“Profoundly grateful to all those who played a part, big or small, in our collective story. I’ll be cheering from the sidelines, confident there is a shared dedication to innovation and creativity, as well as a continued commitment to our values.”
- Collis Ta’eed, former CEO and co-founder of Envato
