Vistaprint acquires design marketplace ‘99designs’

Printing major Vistaprint announces that its parent company Cimpress has acquired freelance design marketplace 99designs. With this acquisition, 99designs will become part of Vistaprint while also operating as a separate brand, with Patrick Llewelyn, CEO of 99designs continuing to lead his team and reporting to Robert Keane, CEO of Cimpress/Vistaprint.

The main emphasis of the acquisition is to pick up the opportunity of connecting 99designs’ freelance designers with the 20 million small businesses who use Vistaprint to print signs, banners, business cards and other marketing materials. It means the customers can now have their design and printing needs handled in one place.

Vistaprint has already been expanding into design services, with offerings that include a design service that businesses have used to create custom face masks during the pandemic. According  to Robert Kean, the driving force behind Vistaprint’s future with 99designs is their passion to help small businesses.

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 the teams of the two companies could create alone.

As of now the financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed. Cimpress is publicly traded, while 99designs has remained private. The design company was incepted in the year 2008 and raised a total of $45 million from Accel and Recruit Strategic Partners.