Stock media content provider Shutterstock has provided $15m in funding for China-headquartered design-based content platform and commercial partner ZCool Network Technology.
ZCool operates an online platform with more than 4 million users, where designers and other creative people can share their content in order to access commercial opportunities. It has been Shutterstock’s exclusive Chinese distributor for image and video content since 2014.
Jon Oringer, Shutterstock’s founder and chief executive, said: “China is a strong market for creative content use in print and digital across all industries, and I am delighted to strengthen our relationship with ZCool.
“We recognise ZCool’s achievement in building a strong creative community and their long-term plan to cultivate a complete creative ecosystem. This investment forges a deeper partnership for us in China and provides the thriving and dedicated creative communities and global businesses across China access to Shutterstock tools and assets.”
EMC Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of data storage provider EMC, which is now owned by computing technology producer Dell, led a $10m series B round for ZCool in September 2016 that included media group Hearst’s corporate venture capital unit, Hearst Ventures.
VC group IDG Capital and media company Trends Media Group had previously supplied “several million” dollars in series A funding for the company, according to China Money Network.