Berlin-based Kittl (previously Heritage Type), an intuitive design platform for creators, announced on Thursday that it has raised €10.8M in a Series A round of funding led by Left Lane Capital.
Speed Invest, angel investors Des Traynor (Intercom Co-Founder), Shaan Puri (former Bebo CEO), and product leaders from Calm, Amazon, and Instagram also participated in the round.
Kittl says it will deploy the proceeds toward growing its tech and product teams to develop its tools further.
“This is a very tech-heavy development that requires strong engineering resources. In particular, we’ll be doubling down on existing A.I. and machine learning efforts to empower users,” says Nicolas Heymann, co-founder of Kittl.
Kittl: What you need to know
Founded in 2020 by Nicolas Heymann and Tobias Saul, Kittl is a design platform that makes complex design processes more accessible and faster.
The German company started as Heritage Type. After raising €1.6M in 2021, they rebranded and launched the Kittl platform in January 2022. With the new platform, the company aims to compete against the likes of Canva and Adobe.
“Creating advanced designs can be a long and painful process,” says co-founder and CEO Nicolas Heymann. “With Kittl, we help you to design stunning graphics with magic tools that empower your creative process.”
Kittl says its web-based tools help users easily make distinctive logos, t-shirts, posters, labels, and cards. Users can choose from thousands of ready-made templates before customising them with easy-to-use tools.
Since its inception, Users have created more than 1M designs through the platform.
“Kittl lets a user easily create products professionally without needing complex tools that take a long time to learn,” says Heymann. “We’re going to be building new tools to unlock new possibilities and make Kittl even more powerful.”
The Investor
Left Lane Capital is a venture capital firm based out of New York, and invests in high-growth internet and consumer technology companies. The VC’s previous investments include WeTravel, GoStudent, Masterworks, M1 Finance, Tovala, FightCamp, Wayflyer, Blank Street, and more.
“Kittl’s easy-to-use platform democratises the creation of professional-grade graphic design,” says Magnus Karnehm, Principal at Left Lane Capital.
“Kittl has grown its user base and engagement incredibly fast, which is entirely thanks to its laser focus on creating a platform that spans ideation, creation, and ultimately monetisation of graphic design,” Karnehm adds.
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