Bynder acquires Webdam for €40 million to gain foothold in the US market

Amsterdam-based Bynder, named a Deloitte Fast 50 Rising Star in 2015, acquired Webdam, Shutterstock’s digital asset management (DAM) software, for €40 million ($49.1M). Surprisingly, Bynder’s only known (and significant) funding came 18 months back when NY-based Insight Venture Partners invested €20M in the company’s Series A round.

The numbers imply that Bynder had strong revenues and profitability during the past few years which has enabled the company to make this high-profile acquisition of a North American competitor. Bynder previously acquired SocialExpress, a social media analytics reporting tool, in April 2015.

Acquisition to fuel growth for Bynder

Chris Hall, founder, and CEO of Bynder eyes significant growth for the combined company. “Businesses are racing to keep up with the digital economy, in which digital content has become the storefront for your brand. Marketers and creatives play a critical role in developing these digital experiences, so the necessity for DAM is only accelerating,” said Chris.

Bynder boasts having customers such as Nike, Puma, Canon, Spotify and Bridgestone and the company it acquired, Webdam, too has a strong customer base in North America which includes Starbucks, Ferguson, Verizon and Subway among others.

The Digital Asset Management Market size

Marketandmarkets, a company that provides B2B market research estimates that DAM market is projected to grow from $2.44 Billion in 2017 to $5.66 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 18.3%. Given there are also other companies competing in the space, such as Adobe Systems, Cognizant, and Adam Software Nv, it is not unlikely that both Webdam and Bynder can together create new innovative products and services in the coming months and years. Joining forces will only help them do that, as hinted by Bynder’s CEO.

“We’re ready to join forces with a fellow leader in the space and develop an unparalleled DAM that businesses integrate at the core of their operations,” said Chris. As for Webdam, it too seems happy with its acquisition and sees future growth potential in the said deal.

Artificial Intelligence: The frontier of competition

One of the areas Bynder may pursue is the use of AI (artificial intelligence) in image and video recognition. It already uses Amazon Web Services Rekognition, an Amazon service that allows adding image and video analysis to applications. Users just have to provide an image or video to the Rekognition API, and the service can identify the objects, people, text, scenes, and activities. Having more data (by having access to Webdam’s customers) will only help it train its algorithms better and faster to leapfrog the competition in this space.

“We see this as a great opportunity for our customers’ continued success and a natural partnership that will help us meet future industry demands,” said Bob Hickey, GM of Webdam. The company that never took any outside funding was first acquired by Shutterstock in Mar 2014.

Nonetheless, the San Mateo, CA-based company appears to be a fun place to work. Below, in a video posted on Webdam’s YouTube channel, the team is having some ‘serious fun’.