Dear Pond5 community,
We built Pond5 with the goal of empowering media makers, and we’ve made great progress towards that end — Pond5 now offers the deepest and most diverse catalog of stock video on the web, plus millions of other creative assets, at the best prices anywhere. This means that creators around the world have access to an ever-expanding palette of creative possibilities that wouldn’t be available to them otherwise. And for the 30,000+ artists selling their work on the site, Pond5 is a means to earn money doing what they love: creating media.
We’re incredibly proud of, and grateful for, the progress the Pond5 community has made over the past 8+ years — but we’re only just beginning our adventure. Today we’re delighted to announce that we are raising our first major financing, for just over $60 million, from Accel Partners and Stripes Group. With this financing we are doubling down on our commitment to build out the world’s most vibrant and artist-friendly marketplace for creativity. The capital will help us accelerate product development, build our global team, and expand our marketing efforts on behalf of Pond5 artists.
Accel and Stripes are two outstanding firms that represent the very best in the industry. They are a perfect fit for Pond5. Just as our focus is on artists, theirs is on supporting entrepreneurs to build great businesses. We’re honored to be joining the ranks of the amazing companies that they have worked with, and we’re delighted to be welcoming John Locke from Accel and Dan Mariott from Stripes onto our board of directors. Their insight and expertise will bring a ton of value to the Pond5 community. While this is a major milestone in Pond5’s evolution, it is also just a stepping stone to the next phase. We will continue to remain 100% focused on the artists that buy and sell on Pond5, and we recognize that our work is only beginning when it comes to creating the best possible experience for the Pond5 community.
Everybody makes media — it’s part of what it means to be human. From the earliest cave paintings to the invention of photography to viral videos today, humans have shown that communication through rich, visual media is central to our condition. Our hope is that together with the Pond5 community we can provide a place for media creation to flourish, and help make the world a little more interesting and a little more beautiful.
We’re incredibly excited to be moving into this next phase of our adventure with you!
-Tom & the Pond5 crew