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February 5, 2014 11:00 pm GMT

UXPin Picks Up $1.6M Round Led By Freestyle Capital To Democratize Design

Screen Shot 2014-02-05 at 10.08.34 AMThis morning UXPin announced the completion of a$1.6 million funding round led by Freestyle Capital, with participation fromAndreessen Horowitz and IDG Ventures. UXPin is an online design tool designed to build a middle ground between professional-level tools that are too complex for the average person, and the simplistic opposite end of the market. Its goal is to let people design anything from wearable technology to software with its technology, in its browser-based tool. I’m no designer, though I did play with the product and found it simple enough to dig into. The company saw its revenue spike 950 percent year-over-year between 2012 and 2013, so it appears to be doing something right. (UXPin has “thousands” of customers, but did not provide a more specific number. With 3,000 customers paying $15 per month, UXPin has yearly revenue north of $500,000.) A few things make UXPin unique: It offers no long-term free tier and is on a quick ramp to profitability. According to CEO Marcin Treder, UXPin should be profitable by the summer. A U.S.-venture-backed, Polish, in-browser design tool firm hiring in the U.S. that is about to rock into the black? Name another firm that is that unconventional. In fact, according to Treder, only three Polish firms have ever received venture capital from the United States, and all three picked up the dollars in 2013. The company’s$1.6 million in capital is not its first set of cash. According to Treder, UXPin picked up around a quarter million dollars from Polish investors previously. Then, the company raised$700,000 that closed last October. However, interest convinced them to extend the funding period, and so Freestyle came in with more capital. Freestyle’s own Joyce Kim will join its board. As you expected, the company intends to invest its new cash into hiring in the United States and in developing its service. All told UXPin is a neat service that has convinced a decent swath of designers to open their wallets. And that revenue was likely key to convincing some of the smarter money in Silicon Valley to take note and toss a few more dollars its way. Anyone want to gamble on how long until Adobe calls the firm? Top Image Credit:Bruno Cordioli(Image Cropped)

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/qRHrKNR_CUo/

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