Freepik acquires troubled stock image company EyeEm
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Freepik announces its acquisition of EyeEm, the Berlin-based stock photography company. This acquisition is Freepik’s latest international growth effort, following the expansion of its U.S. leadership team earlier this year and the acquisitions of Videvo (UK), Iconfinder (Denmark), and Original Mockups (Colombia).
Through this acquisition, Freepik gains access to EyeEm’s unique catalog of 160 million photographs, built by its contributor community. These photographs will add to Freepik’s 72 million resources, which include videos, illustrations, icons, and vectors. Through Freepik’s revised business model for EyeEm, customers will pay a smaller set fee per month for unlimited downloads – opening up access to premium content.
Founded in 2011 in Berlin, Germany, EyeEm allowed photographers to sell pictures through its platform – focusing on high-end content – with EyeEm retaining part of the fees. In 2022, EyeEm was acquired by British-based Talenthouse before filing for bankruptcy earlier this year. Now, together with Freepik, the remaining employees of EyeEm will strive to reignite the business and rebuild its contributor community. EyeEm will operate as an independent business – a subsidiary of Freepik, its new parent company.
Purchase terms weren’t disclosed but Talenthouse paid $40 million to buy it in 2021, according to Techcrunch. According to the Freepik announcement, “Freepik will swiftly pay off all outstanding debts to EyeEm’s 140,000 contributors and enable EyeEm to recover from bankruptcy, restoring its operations. It will also create more favorable conditions for many creatives.
“With EyeEm’s acquisition, Freepik is strengthening its offering in the photography market, where there’s a growing need for diverse imagery that’s truly authentic,” said Joaquin Cuenca Abela, CEO and co-founder at Freepik. “By investing in EyeEm, we will be supporting its brilliant network of contributors and, more broadly, reinforcing the value of photography. From here, we can pave the road to recovery and make the business sustainable. It’s an exciting time and we’re very much looking forward to working together.”
“EyeEm always stood out to us, thanks to its vibrant community of photographers, who created a brilliant and collaborative ecosystem brimming with originality,” added Carlos Marín, Chief Strategy Officer at Freepik. “We are always looking for ways to provide a better experience for our users, and in EyeEm we saw a product with real potential, that really complements and elevates our core offering. This is another milestone in Freepik’s growth journey, and we’re excited that EyeEm is a part of this.”
Peter Willert, Managing Director at EyeEm, added: “Creative contributors have always been at the heart of EyeEm. Now, together with Freepik, we can give back to the people who made EyeEm successful, creating new opportunities. By combining forces, our community will not only survive but thrive as we can focus again on providing original and unique imagery to customers worldwide.”
In 2021, the Dead Pixels Society interviewed Cuenca Abela, founder of Freepik, for an episode of the Dead Pixels Society podcast. Listen below: