Recruit Strategic Partners, the corporate venturing unit of human resources provider Recruit Holdings, led a $10m series B round for US-based graphic design marketplace 99designs yesterday.
Accel Partners, the venture capital firm that led 99design’s $35m series A round in 2011, also participated in the round. Angel investors Michael Dearing, Stewart Butterfield, Dave Goldberg and Anthony Casalena also contributed to the series A round.
Founded in Australia in 2008, 99designs operates a logo and graphic design marketplace and claims to have pioneered the practice of crowdsourced design competitions enabling companies to select their favourite from a range of submitted design concepts.
The cash will be used by 99designs to expand geographically, particularly in Japan where Recruit Holdings is headquartered.
Akihiko Okamoto, managing director of Recruit Strategic Partners, said: “Investing in 99designs fits in with Recruit’s goal of becoming the number-one company in global matching across multiple sectors.
“They have helped more than 350,000 businesses launch and grow and paid out more than $110mto designers around the world. With this investment, we can help them promote their global design platform throughout Asia and beyond.”