Design Pickle, a Scottsdale-based graphic design firm and web platform, said Monday that it raised $25 million from Colorado River Partners, after bootstrapping since the company’s founding in 2015.
Design Pickle is a subscription platform that gives clients access to unlimited graphic design services. The company has about 500 creatives around the world that help make logos, social media posts, illustrations, presentations and more for customers.
Russ Perry, CEO and founder of Design Pickle, said his team is like a subscription workforce, turning out creative content for clients with an ongoing need.
“For seven years, the vision has always exceeded our resources,” Perry told AZInno. “For example, motion graphics is something we launched last year. It took us almost two years to do it because of the constraints. The ability to launch new services, to launch new features, to launch what clients are demanding and asking for every single day, it’s like finally we can move faster on that.”
As part of the funding, which came with a minority stake in the company, Brian Sharples and William Kuntz of Colorado River Partners will join the Design Pickle board. Sharples previously co-founded Homeaway in Austin, Texas.
Design Pickle is a mix between a software company and a service provider. Perry said the company is not a marketplace for creative talent and it’s not a traditional design agency, instead blending elements of both and reimagining them to better serve clients that want consistent, high-quality work.
The Covid-19 pandemic forced many activities online, and though the company faced some challenges, Perry said Design Pickle has seen a huge increase in customer growth in the past two years.
“So much more content is being digitized, experiences are being moved online, there's so many things that people need to do to update their communications, the way they message online, their brand, and all of that content you see, is where we fit in perfectly,” he said.
Design Pickle currently has about 60 team members in the U.S. and 500 dedicated contractors scattered across the globe, with its two biggest hubs in the Philippines and Mexico. The company plans to hire around 45 more people thanks to the new funding, about half of which are expected to be in Arizona.
Design Pickle has been remote-first since inception, a feature which served it well during the pandemic. Perry said the way people work is changing and by embracing remote work, his company is able to hire the best people for the job, regardless of where they live.
“The global nature of work is here, and it's here to stay and the remote nature of work is here to stay,” he said. “It's been really a blessing to ride that wave on the forefront.”
