OpenView is an expansion stage venture firm that helps grow software companies like Instructure, Kareo, Datadog, and Expensify into market leaders. Through OpenView's Expansion Platform, they help companies hire the best talent, acquire, and retain the right customers and partner with industry leaders so they can dominate their markets. OpenView's focus on the expansion stage makes it suited to provide truly tailored operational support to their portfolio companies. OpenView Partners has adopted the Diversity Term Sheet Rider.

OpenView

Northcap is a venture capital company that provides funds and support for ICT companies based on the technologies of cloud computing, communications, mobile and mobility, online services, and e-commerce. It funds companies in three stages of development such as seed stage: invests in Danish companies from the first revenue onwards; early stage: invests i companies with a proven business model and a revenue of €1-2 million or more in the Northern part of Europe; and growth stage: invests in well-established Northern European companies with a revenue of €10-25 million.  Northcap covers several essential areas of technology businesses development, including strategy, internationalization, sales processes, recruitment of employees, and organization.  Northcap is based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Northcap

The Gores Group is a control-oriented private equity firm, specializing in acquiring and partnering with businesses that can benefit from their operational expertise and capital base. The firms’ current portfolio includes companies across diverse industries in which their partners have considerable experience, including technology, telecommunications, business services, industrial, healthcare, media and entertainment, and consumer products. Its offices in North America and Europe serves active investment programs. Company’s current investments are datablue, VITAC, Fotona, Glotel, astadia, and COSMO. The Gores Group was founded in 1978 by Alec Gores and is based in California, U.S.

The Gores Group

Zmags

Zmags Creator enables marketers to design and publish endless types of interactive digital experiences without coding. Plugging directly into the existing tech stack, marketers can launch Creator in one hour. Brands like Ethan Allen, AG Jeans, and Cole Haan leverage Creator to drive more revenue from existing digital assets at a fraction of the time and cost of coding.

Zmags is a Boston-based technology company that offers the Creator digital experience platform. Creator revolutionizes how brands accelerate revenue by bringing inspiring interactive customer experiences to life, online and everywhere their customers are. With Creator, marketers can simply upload a file or design rich content from scratch, make it interactive and shoppable, and then publish it in seconds directly within an existing tech stack, without any coding required.

Zmags Announces Creator Connect, a Headless DX Tool

9 Interactive Catalogue Design Software for Making Shoppable Catalogues

Zmags Unveils Creator Connect: Transforming How Brands Deliver More Intelligent and Connected Digital Experiences

Zmags Acquires Award-winning E-commerce Digital Agency Be A Part Of

Zmags Unveils Creator Connect: Transforming Digital Experiences

Creating affordable content for the digital age

Content Creation Tools

MEDIA ADVISORY: Zmags and Toys“R”Us Executives to Co-Panel Webinar: “Accelerating Content Experimentation to Drive Revenue Now (And Later)”

Zmags is a Boston-based technology company that offers the Creator digital experience platform. Creator revolutionizes how brands accelerate revenue by bringing inspiring interactive customer experiences to life, online and everywhere their customers are. With Creator, marketers can simply upload a file or design rich content from scratch, make it interactive and shoppable, and then publish it in seconds directly within an existing tech stack, without any coding required.In March 2022, Zmags unveiled Creator Connect, a headless digital experience (DX) tool that fuels the company's move toward headless, composable services that can integrate into any part of the customer journey. Creator Connect empowers marketers and designers to incorporate any aspect of their ecommerce infrastructure into digital experiences, converting all API-enabled ecommerce and martech systems into an intuitive UI for composing digital experiences. It provides continuity of experience throughout the customer journey, unifies martech and ecommerce technology stacks, creates a tailored self-service approach, and gives brands the agility to adapt quickly to changes.In April 2022, Zmags acquired Be A Part Of, a Toronto-based ecommerce digital agency, to expand its service offerings. Be A Part Of's library of off-the-shelf ecommerce connectors and services allows retailers to leverage Creator Connect to deliver engaging content more quickly and respond faster to market opportunities.

Canva is a graphic design platform that offers a web-based suite of tools and features for creating professional-looking designs for various purposes, including social media graphics, presentations, marketing materials, and more. Founded in 2013 by Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht, and Cameron Adams, Canva provides an intuitive and user-friendly interface with drag-and-drop functionality, an extensive library of templates, graphics, and fonts, allowing users to design without extensive technical expertise.
Canva's key product offerings revolve around its versatile design tool that enables users to create visually engaging content. The platform incorporates features such as customizable templates, a vast collection of graphics and images, video editing capabilities, and tools for designing websites, presentations, and documents. Canva's collaborative features allow multiple users to work on designs simultaneously, fostering teamwork and streamlining the creative process.
In 2021, Canva generated revenue of over USD 1 billion, with 10 million paid subscribers and 4.5 million paid team subscriptions. The company has experienced remarkable growth, amassing 90 million users as of October 2022. Canva's profitability and strong cash reserves, with USD 700 million on hand, have positioned it as a resilient player in the industry, even during challenging economic conditions.
To further enhance its offerings, Canva has acquired several companies, including Zeetings (a presentations startup), Pexels and Pixabay (stock photography websites), Kaleido.ai (an Australian startup), and Smartmockups (a Czech-based company). In September 2022, Canva announced the launch of its "Canva Worksuite," a comprehensive suite of products aimed at professionals, including Canva Docs (a document editor), Canva Websites (a website builder), and Canva Whiteboards, among others.
Key customers and partnerships
Canva has established partnerships with various companies to expand its reach and enhance its offerings. In 2020, Canva signed contracts with FedEx Office and Office Depot, enabling users to print and ship their designs directly from the platform.
The company has also forged strategic collaborations with industry leaders, such as its recent partnership with Affinity, a provider of professional-grade creative software. This alliance aims to bridge the gap between user-friendly platforms and professional-grade tools, empowering creators at all levels.
Furthermore, Canva has gained significant traction within the enterprise sector, with 85% of Fortune 500 companies, including FedEx, L'Oréal, and Salesforce, utilizing Canva's design tools. As of 2022, Canva reported having 4.4 million customers paying for its "Canva for Teams" offering, demonstrating its growing presence in the business world.

Canva

Grammarly is an AI-powered writing assistant that helps professionals and students communicate effectively across various platforms and devices. Developed by linguists and engineers, Grammarly uses algorithms to provide suggestions for improving grammar, spelling, punctuation, clarity, conciseness, tone, and overall style.
Grammarly's key product offerings include a free version with basic writing suggestions, as well as premium and business plans with advanced features like full-sentence rewrites, plagiarism detection, vocabulary enhancements, and brand tone consistency. The AI analyzes writing in real-time and makes contextual recommendations to ensure the message resonates with the intended audience.
One of Grammarly's standout capabilities is its seamless integration with over 500,000 apps and websites, allowing users to receive writing feedback wherever they type.
Key customers and partnerships
Grammarly has formed partnerships with educational institutions like Harvard University and Stanford University to help students and faculty improve their writing proficiency. Its business plan serves companies across various industries, assisting teams in maintaining consistency and adherence to specific brand tones through customizable style guides.
As of June 2024, Grammarly's user base includes over 30 million people worldwide and over 70,000 professional teams.

Grammarly

Picsart is a digital content creation platform that offers a suite of AI-powered tools for creating and editing images, videos, GIFs, logos, and other visual content. The company's flagship product, Picsart Ignite, comprises over 20 AI tools that enable users to generate visuals, enhance existing content, and streamline creative workflows.
Picsart's AI capabilities span image generation, upscaling, object removal, background replacement, style transfer, and avatar creation. Its tools cater to both individual creators and businesses, assisting with tasks like designing social media posts, ads, and product visuals. The platform has seen significant adoption, with over 2 million AI-generated images produced daily as of November 2023.
The company has also expanded its enterprise offerings, launching an API program in February 2022 that allows businesses to integrate Picsart's creative tools into their platforms. This move aims to support the creator economy by enabling businesses to offer deeper creative experiences.
Key customers and partnerships
In June 2024, Picsart announced a partnership with Getty Images, a leading provider of stock imagery. This collaboration enables Picsart subscribers to generate unique images with commercial rights and indemnity directly within the platform, streamlining the content creation process for marketers and businesses.
Additionally, Picsart has integrated its tools with Walsworth Yearbooks, one of America's largest yearbook printers. This integration grants students access to Picsart's photo editing suite, enhancing their yearbook design capabilities with AI-powered solutions.

Picsart

Typeform is a no-code SaaS platform offering conversational forms, quizzes, surveys, and asynchronous video solutions to help companies engage with their audiences and grow their businesses. Founded in Barcelona in 2012 by David Okuniev and Robert Muñoz, Typeform revolutionized online data collection by emphasizing empathy and seamless design to make digital interactions feel more human. The platform's intuitive, mobile-responsive forms feature one question at a time, natural language, and built-in logic to emulate real conversations.
Typeform's core product allows users to create visually appealing, customizable forms without coding. Its paid plans, ranging from USD 290 to USD 990 annually, offer advanced features such as unlimited questions, payment integration, and email notifications. The platform integrates with various business tools like HubSpot, Google Sheets, MailChimp, and Salesforce.

Typeform

Ceros is a cloud-based experiential content creation platform that empowers marketers and designers to create rich, interactive content without code or traditional web development. The Ceros platform provides a no-code solution for creating and publishing engaging digital experiences that drive user engagement, lead generation, and sales.
At the core of Ceros is a design studio that offers complete creative control, enabling users to develop and deploy pixel-perfect layouts using a familiar freeform canvas. They can incorporate animations, interactions, and multimedia elements into their designs using presets and templates. The studio facilitates collaboration, with features for real-time previews across devices, version control, and file management.
Ceros simplifies the creative workflow by allowing direct import of design files from Adobe Creative Cloud apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, and integration with Getty Images library. It is compatible with all major CMS platforms for seamless embedding of interactive content on websites. Published experiences can be easily updated in real-time and optimized for search discoverability.
Ceros has evolved from a digital publishing startup in 2012 to a comprehensive experiential content solution serving enterprise clients across industries. With over 350 employees, it reported annual recurring revenue of over USD 50 million as of September 2022 after raising USD 133.5 million in funding led by Sumeru Equity Partners.

Ceros

Assists content writers in creating digital written media including blogs, ebooks, magazines, and journals.

Offers tools to create pictures, videos, animations, and other visual media.

Assists in creating a variety of digital media channels including podcasts, polls, quizzes, and surveys.

Platforms for discovering and purchasing digital content. Typically offering a repository of digital content or a marketplace to discover and connect with content creators.

Tools for collaboration between internal and external team members on content creation.

Platforms that provide an all-in-one solution that covers the entire content creation process. Typically also provides consultancy services covering content strategy, design, and analytics.

NLP automates the creation of personalized written media content for different use cases

For written and visual content creation AI/ML is a core part of the end result

Uses generative AI to automate the creation of personalized content across multiple media formats

Zmags

Sources

EDGE Insights

About EDGE

Contact Us

Resources

Area of Focus

Technology Research Made Effortless