Getty Images acquires Unsplash

Mikael Cho, co-founder and CEO of Unsplash, announced the free stock photo company was acquired by Getty Images. Getty said it will fund the transaction from existing cash balances and the transaction is expected to close at the close of the month. More than 100 million images are downloaded every month from the Unsplash platform and thousands of partner integrations through the Unsplash API.

Getty Images has a catalog of more than 425 million images and videos from visual experts, award-winning content creators, producers, partners, the world’s deepest digital archive of historic photography, and world-class support, technology and capabilities.

iStock by Getty Images, backed by the visual expertise of Getty Images, is a leading source of imagery and video empowering small and mid-sized businesses to cost-effectively reach and engage with their customers.

Through the combination of the Getty Images, iStock and Unsplash brands, and their corresponding websites and APIs, Getty Images says it will be uniquely positioned to reach and enable creativity and communications across the full spectrum of the world’s growing creative community.

“We could not be happier to welcome Unsplash to the Getty Images family,” said Craig Peters, Chief Executive Officer, Getty Images. “The Unsplash team shares our values and share our vision of enabling global creativity and communication. We are impressed by what the Unsplash team and community has built and we look forward to supporting their continued development.”

Unsplash founders Cho, Luke Chesser, and Stephanie Liverani will continue to lead the Unsplash business maintaining its free content model, reporting to Peters.

Started in 2013 as a Tumblr blog, Unsplash now offers more than 2 million free high-resolution images, providing an easily searchable online platform for a community of millions of users. The company works with some of the world’s leading brands to curate, amplify and syndicate their content to the platform’s broad audiences. As of 2021, Unsplash has more than two billion image downloads across the globe.