PhotoShelter acquires UK-based Third Light to accelerate leadership in digital asset management
Digital asset management software maker PhotoShelter announced it has acquired Third Light, a U.K.-based DAM software provider. Terms weren’t disclosed. The acquisition was made in partnership with PhotoShelter’s investor Clearhaven Partners, a Boston-based software and technology focused private equity firm, which invested in PhotoShelter four months ago.
PhotoShelter serves more than 1,300 enterprises, brands, sports leagues, universities, and other diversified organizations, as well as more than 80,000 professional photographers, the company said. With the Third Light acquisition, PhotoShelter adds a UK-based team, picks up their flagship DAM application, Chorus, and adds more than 300 global customers. In a press release, the company says the merger expands PhotoShelter’s DAM capabilities and international market share as the company meets growing global demand for streamlining media cloud storage and creative workflows. PhotoShelter’s marquee customers include Major League Baseball (MLB), NASCAR, Special Olympics, Delta Airlines, Sports Illustrated, NCAA Photos, FreshDirect, and The PGA TOUR, among hundreds more. Founded 15 years ago, PhotoShelter safeguards more than 4 billion visual media assets on its platform and more than 18 petabytes of data.
“At PhotoShelter, we approach digital asset management as more than a place for storing assets, but as a facilitator for fostering active collaboration and workflow simplicity – an approach that has been defined by our customers’ needs,” said Andrew Fingerman, CEO at PhotoShelter. “We know creative teams carry an unwavering commitment to their craft and are at the very heart of how organizations and brands bring visual storytelling to life. PhotoShelter’s DAM solutions enable those organizations to securely and efficiently organize and access highly valuable assets in order to build on the value of those assets. Our investment in Third Light underscores PhotoShelter’s commitment to continued innovation and expansion of our capabilities and geographic footprint in order to best serve our current and future customers.”
Third Light’s products are recognized for enabling streamlined content exchange across creative teams, powerful search tools, unique features such as desktop sync, and a variety of marketing-tech integrations that make them the central source of truth for visual assets, the company said. Third Light’s customers include Sony, Virgin, Cambridge University, Southampton FC, Infosys, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and hundreds more.
“We’re incredibly proud of the technology and trust we’ve built at Third Light with many of the world’s most discerning organizations,” said Michael Wells, Third Light’s Founder and Managing Director, who has joined the leadership team at PhotoShelter. “PhotoShelter’s extensive history of providing software that fosters seamless workflows with an emphasis on ease-of-use is evident in the blue-chip customer base it serves – we’re delighted that Third Light will now be part of the PhotoShelter platform and continue to support the growing global creative community.”
“Clearhaven Partners’ investment philosophy is rooted in identifying exceptional software companies and management teams with whom we partner to build significant intrinsic business value by serving as a partner to our portfolio companies. Both PhotoShelter and Third Light have customer-first approaches to innovation and service that exemplify the characteristics we look for in our investments,” said Michelle Noon, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Clearhaven.
“We are thrilled to continue to invest in the expansion of PhotoShelter’s global footprint through the acquisition of Third Light,” said Christopher Ryan, Managing Partner at Clearhaven. “This acquisition further supports PhotoShelter’s ability to meet significant global demand for DAM solutions and to optimize the user experience for new and existing customers.”
As a part of the combined company’s accelerated growth trajectory and investments in a customer-first organization, PhotoShelter is actively hiring across multiple roles to support its growing sales and customer service departments. With the acquisition of Third Light, it has added a European-based office in Cambridge, United Kingdom, while maintaining its existing locations in New York, New York (U.S. headquarters), and Guadalajara, Mexico. To view open positions, head to photoshelter.jobs.