Dutch startup WeTransfer buys creative app FiftyThree: Why does the acquisition makes sense?

In the world of business, mergers and acquisition are considered to be the strategic moves by the companies for expanding their business and reach in the market.

As we are halfway down the year, the mergers and acquisitions space within the startup ecosystem are abuzz with news of WeTransfer’s most recent FiftyThree acquisition.

While the details regarding the deals weren’t disclosed, WeTransfer has mentioned they acquired the team, the entire patent/IP and trademark portfolio, and all assets for the applications from New York and Seattle-based FiftyThree Inc.

For the uninitiated, FiftyThree is the creator of the famous iOS apps like Paper (sketching app) and Paste (presentation tool for fast-moving teams). It’s worth mentioning here that Paper was named iPad App of The Year in 2012.

WeTransfer acquires FiftyThree

This is the first American company acquisition for the Dutch company WeTransfer, which also marks the second major step in the company’s expansion into the U.S.

The company already opened its office in Los Angeles in 2016. With this move, the company will expand its footprint in New York and Seattle, since FiftyThree operates in these two cities.

Founded by Bas Beerens and Ronald Hans in 2009, WeTransfer was started as a cloud-based file transfer company allowing its users to share ideas by sending large files around the world with a clean interface and no mandatory signup process.

As a result, the company manages around 42 million monthly users with free service and subscriptions mode for the premium version for larger file transfers.

At present, WeTransfer is popular in various places including India, Brazil, Turkey and most of the part of Europe as well.

Gordon Willoughby, WeTransfer’s CEO commented, “As WeTransfer continues to expand we remain committed to serving the creative community and providing products that enhance and improve their workflow. This acquisition expands WeTransfer’s family of obvious creative tools, both on mobile and the web. FiftyThree’s products are beautiful and easy-to-use, and as a business, they share a sense of ethics and transparency that resonate with our core values. We have a great fit with the highly talented FiftyThree team, and we look forward to further building on the multiple synergies between our products.”

On the other hand, Seattle-based FiftyThree was founded in 2011 by Georg Petschnigg and Andrew Allen. The makers of Paper and Paste reach more than 25 Million creative thinkers worldwide. In addition to that, FiftyThree has received awards from Apple, IDSA, The Edison Awards, and IxDA.

FiftyThree co-founder and CEO Georg Petschnigg noted, “We believe technology should serve the human need to create. Our combined products support the transfer and transformation of ideas while keeping creative teams in their flow. Over the last seven years, we shaped the very nature of creation on mobile, and with WeTransfer we will expand the focus to the web.”

This strategic move helps WeTransfer to act as a platform to encourage creative people by focusing more on organizing the creative work process in an efficient without affecting the flow starting from forming initial ideas to final designs.

Stay tuned to Silicon Canals for more updates in the tech startup world.