Lightricks, Award-winning App Developer, Raises $130M Series D to Power Expansion and Champion Creator Economy Users

The new funds will support growth through future M&As and be used to create new tools, solidifying Lightricks as go-to platform to elevate creators in the creator economy

Lightricks, creator of the world’s leading photo and video editing apps including Facetune2, Facetune Video, and Videoleap, announced $130M in Series D funding. The round is comprised of $100M in primary and $30M in secondary funding which brings Lightricks’ total funding to-date to $335M and the company’s latest valuation to $1.8 billion. The round was co-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, and new investors Migdal Insurance, Altshuler Shaham and Shavit Capital. Lightricks raised this strategic Series D to power the expansion of its suite of tools and offer more features and services for creators, further cementing its position as a leading player in the booming creator economy.

“The creator economy has changed the way we, as a society, experience social networks. 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”

In just over eight years since its founding, Lightricks has grown to develop dozens of creativity apps for users in every country of the world, spanning from beginners to professional artists and creators. On the heels of this current funding round and explosion of the creator economy, Lightricks will aim to expand the company by initiating strategic mergers and acquisitions and creating new platforms and tools specifically geared towards professional creators. Lightricks plans to add to its already expansive offering with the goal to become a one-stop shop for resources including creative tools, services and monetization opportunities.

“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.”

Lightricks’ apps have seen tremendous growth during the past year, with millions of people turning to the creativity tools to express themselves and earn income during the pandemic. During the peak of the pandemic lockdown, Lightricks saw a 90 percent increase in app usage across its creativity tools in the U.S. The number of downloads for Videoleap—its most popular video editing app for professional creators—increased 70 percent since the start of the pandemic. A survey found that nearly half of Videoleap users are exporting their creations to TikTok in pursuit of monetized content. Lightricks users create over a billion creations per year on the creativity apps, and the company continues to innovate and improve upon its tools to better serve creators in the creator economy, having launched four completely new apps within the last year.

“We’re delighted to continue to team with Lightricks to help further professionalize the world of content creation,” said Thilo Semmelbauer, Managing Director at Insight Partners. “We look forward to Lightricks building the future of this industry by continuing to supply creators with the highest-quality, most-preferred tools and technology. Lightricks allows people to showcase their individuality and brand on social media, whether for personal self-expression or for monetization.”

“The creator economy has changed the way we, as a society, experience social networks. 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,” said Pasha Romanovski, Co-Founding Partner of Hanaco Ventures. “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.”

Lightricks’ popular suite of creativity apps currently includes editing tools for social media such as Facetune2, Facetune Video, and Filtertune, general creativity photo and video editing tools such as Videoleap, Motionleap, Photoleap, Artleap, Lightleap, and Beatleap, and the Boosted app which is Lightricks’ social media toolkit for small businesses.