Israeli startup Lightricks, which offers a content creation app, has closed a $130 million funding roundnco-led by New York-based global private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners and Hanaco Venture Capital, with participation from existing investors Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Clal Tech, Harel Insurance, and Finance and Greycroft, with new investors Migdal Insurance, Altshuler Shaham, and Shavit Capital. Already a unicorn, the new funding raised the valuation of Lightricks to $1.8 billion. Lightricks is looking to an SPAC merger ahead of an IPO in the near future.
A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) is a business that has no commercial operations and is founded only to raise cash via an initial public offering (IPO) to acquire another business. SPACs, also known as “blank check firms,” have existed for decades.
The $130 million in investment was split between of $100 million in primary funding and $30 million in secondary funding. This brings Lightricks’ total funding to date to $335 million.
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Lightricks is the creator of award-winning photo and video editing apps. They began started with their flagship product Facetune, and since they have built many content creation apps used by millions worldwide.
Since moving to a subscription-based model three years ago, Lightricks’ revenues have tripled year after year. The company’s seven apps have over 160 million downloads worldwide and nearly three million paying subscribers, and have won prestigious awards including Apple’s 2015 App of the Year, Apple’s Best of 2017 and the 2017 Apple Design Award.
“Our mission has always been to continuously strive to bring creators the most advanced technology and help them find new ways to express themselves,” said Zeev Farbman, co-founder and CEO of Lightricks. “The rise of the creator economy has only exacerbated the need of mobile users to streamline the content creation and monetization processes. With this latest funding, we’re able to help elevate our users’ creativity and capabilities with continued advancements to our technology and offering.”
“Creating accessibility within the Videoleap community has always been a part of the plan, and we’re excited to announce this strategic expansion of our offering to Android users everywhere,” says Daniel Berkovitz, Lightricks’ Chief Product Officer. “We’ve seen a huge influx of paid iOS subscribers throughout the year, and we’re ready to enter a new space with Android users, who we know are eager for the same state-of-the-art capabilities our Videoleap app offers iOS users.”
