As advertising and marketing become commoditized, design has emerged as a way to help brands stand out. A startup that helps companies connect with a wider range of designers and other creatives is announcing a round of funding to fuel its business growth. Superside, which operates a network of creatives that are tapped by companies to work on logos, display ads, packaging, bigger marketing campaigns and other design-based efforts, has picked up $30 million, money that it will be investing in further international expansion and growing its team of people.
The round is co-leading by Prosus and Lugard Road Capital. I am told that the company is close to $400 million.
Superside, an OSLO-based company that was founded as Konsus back in 2015, has raised its first large funding round, and it comes on the heels of some impressive growth.
Superside has customers that include the likes of Amazon, Facebook, Salesforce,Cisco, Shopify and Coinbase, according to its co-founder and CEO, Fredrik Thomassen. The words come off as matter-of-fact rather than boastful. You would think that a company like Amazon or Facebook would have enough people on in-house teams to handle whatever design need might arise, but in fact, there is always something that will need an extra pair of creative hands. They are provided by Superside.
The hands are going to increase in size. The company currently has 500 on its team, and Thomassen says he will include both those working on staff and the wider creatives network.
He said it was important for us to think of ourselves in the same boat and create equal opportunities. Creatives are free to do whatever they want, but Superside gives them enough engagement, interesting work, and non-frustrating tools to make it less likely that they would turn to 99.
The plan is to expand that network in the coming months. He said they wanted to go from 350 to 1,000 creatives. You have to read the thinking of Thomassen, which makes this sound reasonable.
Design has faced a massive evolution in the digital age, with most of it carried out on software, and more often than not, it is intended.
Designers used to cut their tether to the office, working remotely, picking up side-hustles, and so on, even before the Covid-19 pandemic.
All of this has been used to create excellent design software that is designed to be used, edited, shared and 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110 888-739-5110
Superside has focused its technology development on making that engagement and following through on work as seamless as possible, with very specific project management software that it has designed itself to manage the processes, including remuneration and related accounting. It has no plans to build design tools.
Thomassen said that they are using exclusively established tools. It is more difficult to compete with companies like Figma and Adobe. Figma is a less closed system than Adobe and we are very bullish on it.
It will be interesting to see if Superside sticks to that, or if it becomes an attractive company to tap for those big firms that are taking on Adobe and building more bridges to creatives alongside the creative tools themselves. Adobe has a link into those networks of creatives already, so it might not be in the running if that were the case.
What sets the company apart is how well it has identified the drawbacks of working with alternatives, and how well it has built a platform to do that.
The former chief marketing officer of Delivery Hero, who is joining the board, said that Superside is different from the other players in the creative economy because of their long-term approach to solving the underlying problems of marketing and creative teams. Superside has the potential to become an agency-killer, while truly levelling the playing field for creatives all over the world.
Superside has seen a lot of growth in the last few years, working with some of the biggest brands in the world, including Amazon, and they have consistently praised Superside's fast turn around times, creative diversity, high-quality content, and impressive access to global top talent.
The growth lead at Shopify said that Superside makes it easy for them to get design done quickly. Their platform is easy to use, and the dedicated team model ensures everyone understands our brand and day-to-day needs, allowing for scale.
The need for high-quality, fast-turnaround digital content continues to rise, and companies look for increasing brand distinction, so Superside is fulfilling the demand by offering a unique subscription that provides fast, flexible and diverse design from some of the world's top creative talent. Superside is attractive for creative team members because it offers remote, flexible, and high paying jobs, allowing them to work with top brands globally. We believe that Superside can bring a new era of creative solutions to top companies around the world.
