Shutterstock Enters into Definitive Agreement to Acquire Envato, Featuring Envato Elements, the Unlimited Creative Content Subscription

Shutterstock, Inc., a leading global creative platform offering high-quality creative content for transformative brands, digital media and marketing companies, announced that it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Envato Pty Ltd. (“Envato”), a leader in digital creative assets and templates. Envato’s flagship product, Elements, is a creative subscription providing unlimited downloads of a diverse array of assets, templates and more—an intelligent creative companion helping creatives make their mark globally.

Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Australia with a presence in Mexico and New Zealand, Envato enables millions of people around the world 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.

“We’re thrilled about this transaction and looking forward to welcoming the Envato team to Shutterstock,” said Shutterstock CEO Paul Hennessy. “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.”

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“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,” added Envato CEO Hichame Assi. “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.”

Former CEO and co-founder Collis Ta‘eed expressed his gratitude to the community stating that he is “profoundly grateful to all those who played a part, big or small, in our collective story.” Ta’eed added, “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.”

Strategic Highlights:

• Complements Shutterstock’s existing offering with Envato Elements, a leading unlimited multi-asset subscription offering

• Expands Shutterstock’s reach within faster growing audiences such as freelancers, hobbyists, small businesses and agencies

• Adds 650k subscribers, more than doubling Shutterstock’s subscriber base to 1.15 million

• Increases Shutterstock’s Content revenue from video, audio, graphics, fonts and templates

• Bolsters 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

• Further diversifies Shutterstock into new content types including code & web themes, product mock-ups, fonts and templates (e.g. Slides, Powerpoint, Keynote, WordPress, video, designs for social posts, gaming, podcasts and print-on-demand)

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Transaction Highlights:

• $245 million cash purchase of 100% of Envato Pty Ltd at closing, after customary working capital and other adjustments

• Expected to accelerate path to Shutterstock’s 2027 long-term targets with Envato adding 20% to annual revenues and 15% to annual adjusted EBITDA

• Financing via a $375 million credit facility with expected drawn leverage of 0.7x net debt to 2024 combined adjusted EBITDA

• Expected transaction closing in the third quarter, subject to customary closing conditions